The Shadow Dragons Live On
by Lyrium eidolon
Summary: AU: Just because the Dragonballs were not used by Goku's friends for almost a hundred years did not mean that the Shadow Dragons were gone from the world. Through human error, they have survived, and now it is up to a young boy to destroy them forever.
1. Chapter 1: The Tragedy

**Author's**** note:** This story has undergone some revision, so the content will be somewhat different from last time. Otherwise, welcome to the story.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yugioh 5Ds or Dragonball GT. They are the properties of their respective owners. This is just a fan-based piece of fiction.

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><p><span>Chapter 1:<span> The Tragedy

Toby could feel the electricity coursing through him; he could barely withstand the pain. Why was this being done to him? He had followed the advice of the one he looked up to: listen to Sayer, but now for some reason he was being electrocuted. Above his screams of torment though, he could hear bits of what was going on, and after a while, something else was said that shocked him even further. Sayer had apparently told the people to increase power. Toby was hoping that the assistants would be able to talk some sense into Sayer. The electricity was still quite violent, causing him excruciating pain, and Sayer could be heard above his screams saying "no use" and "don't care". Even more electricity started coursing through Toby, the pain was too unbearable, having forced his eyes open, and his screams were louder than ever. Seconds later, blackness clouded his vision instantly, and the pain ceased.

The blackness faded, and Toby could see himself dressed in a white robe, in a queue of people. As he stood up after finding himself on a flat surface, he wondered to himself why he got what treatment he did from the people he trusted.

"Sir, please take your place in the queue," someone spoke.

"What?" Toby shouted fearfully, turning to see a pale-blue skinned man with small horns.

"You need to get in the queue to see King Yemma."

"King… Yemma? Where am I? Where is Sayer? Where is Misty?" Toby shouted, panicking. He had to get back home!

"He needs not join the queue!" a voice commanded. It sounded like it was either gravel or something burning. Toby turned to see what seemed to be a red human-dragon type monster coming towards him from behind him, hovering above yellow clouds.

"And why would that be, mister?" the blue man demanded.

"Because I am willing to take him back!"

"That is not for you to decide!"

"It is. This boy is blessed with four stars!"

"Wait, so that means-"

"Yes, now leave us!"

"Thanks for chasing him away mister, but who are you, and where am I?" Toby asked the stranger.

"I am Nuova Shenron, and you are in the next world, Otherworld. You are by a long line going into the office of the judge, King Yemma"

"Did I die, Nuova?"

"Unfortunately, yes. However, should you so wish, I can bring you back to life."

"Please Nuova, can you please take me back. I have a sister and I need her to know that I'll be alright! I'm not ready to die!"

"I will try, but there are complications. First of which is, to get back to the living world without the permission of King Yemma, we will need to fly to a specific location in this realm. Second of which is that your body will revive in a new location dependent on the whereabouts of an artifact I'm linked to, an artifact called the Four-Star Dragon ball."

"Please, just get me back home! I don't care how, just get me back!"

"Very well."

Nuova then lay Toby down in his arms, cradling him. With that, he flew off. The flight seemed to take forever, as they flew along the path that must have been flying _away_ from King Yemma's office. The trip took what seemed like days, maybe weeks, and by the end of it, they had arrived at a lone rock peak above the yellow clouds that was host to a mysterious object. It was an orange ball with four red stars. Nuova set Toby down on the rock, picked up the ball in his right hand and told his charge to grab the ball. Toby clutched it with his left hand, and the color of the ball changed: the orange ball became blue, and it seemed to dig in to his hand. Blackness enveloped him, and when vision returned, he found himself in a completely strange place. It was a small cottage in the middle of nowhere, and he was faced with two individuals. One was a scared child that had strange hair, and another was a muscled man on his guard who also had the same hairstyle.

Toby was confused as to why they were acting this way, but then Nuova's voice asked him if he could take over. He agreed, and immediately he felt his body begin to change. Soon, the two strangers were faced with Nuova Shenron's body instead of Toby Tredwell's.

"Is that you Nuova?" asked the man.

"Yes Goku, it is me," Nuova responded. Toby, who could still see what was happening, was surprised that Nuova knew this man.

"Why are you here Nuova. It's been almost one hundred years since our last wish was made!"

"That wish had enough power to revive all of the Shadow Dragons, but we were a lot weaker than we were originally. We had no bodies of our own, so we had to plant ourselves inside humans to survive, living off their negative energy."

"Does that mean that the Dragons could grow even stronger than before?"

"No Goku, the negative energy inside their hosts is barely enough to keep us at our original strength. However, we were given even more negative energy by the humans recently. We became parasites, forced to take bodies of the living."

"Nuova, I never thought you'd stoop this low, taking a young boy's body!"

"It was necessary Goku. I myself swore that I would never possess a human against their will; that I would survive as a speck of negative Dragon ball energy and an Otherworld spirit, but I had to break that promise recently."

"Why?"

"The boy I am possessing was unjustly murdered by someone who desires nothing more than power. If necessary, we can bring our hosts back to life at the cost of sharing our life force with theirs, so I made him mine at the last second. I couldn't let him perish so early in life. The flame has only just started glowing, so it deserves not to be extinguished at this stage."

"I see you still retain some of your good heart, but what about the child?"

"Toby and I will share control. I will also train him in not only the ways of battle, but also his psychic powers, the lack of which being the reason he was executed."

"Nuova, can I ask one more request?"

"Yes Goku, proceed."

"If the Shadow Dragons have truly returned, then everyone will be in danger and there exists a very high possibility that the universe could be destroyed. Can you please find and destroy them?"

"Very well Goku, but you should know that they now possess humans and therefore live among them, so expunging them will be difficult."

"As long as you extract the dragon within before it takes over their being, you should be able to save the host, judging from what you told me, because the host's life in that case is not directly linked to the dragon's life."

"I shall do this, but first I need to train my host's combat and psychic abilities."

Just then, four figures appeared on the horizon, namely a humanoid green woman, a walking frog, a bird-like humanoid and a giant boar. Gasping with surprise, the child with the same hairstyle as the man identified them as Mamba, Susha, Torga and Lord Yao respectively. He also revealed that they had dangerous intentions, especially Mamba who, according to the child, had managed to regrow her hair. They themselves stated that just because a kid could turn his hair golden was no reason to be afraid, after which they charged, but stopped when Nuova appeared in front of them.

"Let us handle these four," he spoke to Goku and the boy. First to attack was Torga, who immediately bear-hugged him. Nuova only smirked, and soon the bird's arms and front were set on fire. Susha then attempted to head butt him, but as soon as his head came into contact with Nuova, it also burst into flames. Toby found himself both amazed and amused, not only was Nuova holding his own against these monsters, they seemed to be far out of his league. Mamba then attacked, ensnaring Nuova with her hair, but it also caught on fire, leaving her bald, which caused her to chart entire new galaxies of fury. The three people who were attacking then tried to gang up on him, coming from three directions. As soon as they were close enough, Nuova moved very quickly to a point above them so that they all rammed into each other, after which he charged a ball of fire in his hands. "Nova Star!" he shouted, and threw the ball of fire at the three attackers, incinerating them in an explosion.

Lord Yao seemed quite impressed by this display of strength, yet disgusted that his minions were too weak. He then attacked Nuova, who instantly vanished and reappeared at another point. He then brought his hands to his shoulders so that the left hand was on the right shoulder and vice versa, and created a lens. As Yao found him and charged again, it happened. "Nova Death Ray!" Nuova shouted, after which a beam of intense heat shot right through Lord Yao's chest. He then threw another Nova Star at the demon lord and vaporized the rest of his body.

Nuova's body then distorted and shrank until it was in the form of Toby Tredwell. Nuova then told Toby in his mind to look at his left hand and not freak out, which he did so. He found a large blue ball with four black stars embedded into his hand, half of the diameter sticking out his palm and the other half out the back of his hand. It seemed to be the same ball touched while he was in Otherworld. Nuova told him that this was normal as this was where _his_ dragonball (which all seven Shadow Dragons possessed somewhere on their bodies) was located. Goku told Toby not to worry as Nuova Shenron was the only Shadow Dragon that could be trusted. He also left him with a request: when everything was done, would Toby leave the four-star Dragon ball in his great-great grandson Goku Junior's possession as a memento?

Goku Senior then vanished as a helicopter arrived. Toby met Pan, Goku Junior's grandmother, and probably his friend Puck. After a brief goodbye in which Toby promised to stay in touch with Goku Jr., he moved to a remote area in which he started to train. It would take a while, but when he would encounter the Shadow Dragons, he'd be ready.


	2. Chapter 2: The Two Star Dragon

**Author's note: **Spoiler warning: there is a Duel in this chapter. Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards, but what I thought up. Although this time (spoiler warning again) there aren't _nearly_ as many OC cards as what there were originally.

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><p><span>Chapter 2:<span> The Two-Star Dragon/The Facility

After about a year of training since Toby Tredwell had been revived as, as Nuova Shenron had called it, a Shadow Dragon Bearer, he felt he was ready. He had trained his body as best he could, grasped the full extent of Nuova Shenron's abilities and developed his special power to a point where it could potentially rival those who he once looked up to. He had also gained a Duel Disk that was custom made by using some of the negative energy in his Dragon ball, which was then replenished by his own energy, and he had also created a strong Deck consisting of many rare cards.

Toby decided to test his abilities: he activated his special Duel Disk, consisting of three black dragon heads that each, according to his friend, resembled the head of Shenron, the Eternal Dragon that normally rose out of the balls. The black dragon of this type in the center, facing towards Toby's left hand, opened its mouth, after which Toby placed his Deck inside. A second dragon, found touching the central one along with its third counterpart but connected on the right side of the central one, suddenly extended itself. It flew forward while turning left for one hundred and eighty degrees, then continued flying forward in the opposite direction to which the other dragon heads were facing. After that, it started turning left for one hundred and eighty degrees again, ascending and stopping its flight just before reaching a point above the central dragon head. The third dragon started extending itself as well, but only brushed the body of the second after which it turned ninety degrees and opened its mouth, revealing his Extra Deck. A life point counter appeared on the head of the central Dragon head, reading 4000.

Toby used a fire ki blast to ignite a forest, then he played Rain Storm, and just like that, a heavy rainstorm started pouring down onto the forest, extinguishing the fire. He knew that, because this had worked, his powers had developed far beyond what they once were, as back then, he could only _just_ cause a trickle of rain.

The time had come to weed out the remaining Shadow Dragons. Strangely, they all seemed to gravitate to one area, the area of Satellite/New Domino City. Toby tried asking Nuova Shenron about this, and the latter revealed it was probably due to the Zero Reverse Incident creating a colossal amount of negative energy that the Shadow Dragons could use to feed themselves and regain their full strength. Apparently though, there was not enough to restore them to bodies of their own, so they just forage for more negative energy in the place where humans found a way to create it without overusing the Dragon balls.

Nuova told Toby that they could find more Shadow Dragon Bearers by using the Dragon ball in his hand: the stronger it vibrated, the closer they were, but it would only vibrate if he put in a constant effort. Toby rose from the ground of the area in Mount Paozu where he had been training, and started to focus: finding these people required concentration or else nothing would happen. He could feel the Dragon ball start to pull itself in one direction, and he followed its pull. Eventually, he landed in New Domino City and, to avoid confusion, he had earlier donned a blue fireproof trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat. To further protect his identity, his voice alternated between his own and Nuova's.

Toby's Dragon ball seemed to be pulling him to, if he remembered correctly, the Facility, a prison with a harsh warden. He entered the Facility through one of the windows and kept himself hidden; he and Nuova agreed that they didn't have to involve other people in this. The Dragon ball led him to the Warden's office, and when he entered, he could feel strong vibrations coming from it. The Chief, known as Mr. Armstrong, was appalled that some… _kid_… could have the nerve to kick down _his_ door. Nuova immediately noticed something suspicious and, through Toby, ordered him to take his hat off.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" boomed Mr. Armstrong, but by that point Toby had already removed his hat, knowing that this man wasn't going to listen. Nuova spotted it… two black stars on the man's forehead, and he asked Toby for control. After he gained control, he held out his right hand, exposed his Dragon ball and began speaking: "It is time for you to make yourself known, Haze Shenron!" Immediately Mr. Armstrong slapped both his hands to his forehead and started screaming. A Dragon ball had emerged on his forehead, looking just like the one Toby had, yet it only had two stars. His whole body began expanding, but not by much. His clothes disintegrated, his face began changing, spikes started sprouting from his head and shoulders, a large fleshy tail began emerging on his back and his skin began changing color, most of it going green but some going yellow. By the time it ended, Mr. Armstrong's body was no more. Instead, the body of the Two Star Dragon, Haze Shenron, stood in front of Toby/Nuova.

Guards who heard the Chief's screams and came in were shocked at what they saw: their boss was gone. They immediately began attacking both Haze and Nuova. The latter raised his body temperature to a point that any batons hitting him would melt, and anyone trying to grab him would be set on fire. Haze just sighed and took the guards' attacks until they ran out of energy minutes later, after which he proceeded to stamp them into the ground.

"Ah, so refreshing to be born again!" Haze spoke after he landed on a skyscraper.

"It is a shame Haze…" Nuova stated

"Awww, are you going soft Nuova. Relish in the fact that we live again. Let it be known that I am Haze Shenron, the dragon of pollution, and this… is my new home!"

"This ends now Haze!"

"It does indeed! This world will be ours!"

"…for you that is!"

"Turning against us now, are we? Fine, we will settle this a little more traditionally: with a card game Duel! The winner walks away with his body still intact!"

Haze Shenron grew a Duel Disk of the exact same make as Toby's on his left arm. With a deck of cards suddenly appearing inside the main compartment, the Duel Disk was activated. Nuova, who also had the Duel Disk in his Shadow Dragon form, also activated his. Haze went first, playing the Field Spell **Two-Star: Dark Polluted Lake**. After the card was played, the scenery changed to a wilderness with a lake behind Haze Shenron. A long black dragon was diving towards the lake, and when it impacted, it took on the form of the water, turned to sludge and sank, corrupting the lake, ground and sky. The first ability of this card was the summoning of a Shadow Token. Haze stepped onto the field, claiming that _he_ was the Shadow Token summoned, which in this case had 500 Attack and Defense points. He then summoned Giant Germ (1000/100) and activated Dark Spirit Art – Greed, destroying it to draw two cards unless Nuova revealed a Spell or Trap card. Two cards were then placed face-down after the drawing concluded.

"What kind of monster are we dealing with, Nuova?" Toby mentally asked.

"Well, he has just summoned a Shadow Token. He appears to be a DARK fiend," came the response

Nuova drew, and activated Toby's Solemn Wishes, then summoning Fire Princess (1300/1500). After that came Pot of Greed for two free cards, one of which was Watapon (200/300) which Special Summoned itself due to its particular ability. Then came a set spell card and afterwards Altar for Tribute, destroying Watapon to heal Toby/Nuova for 200. So far, his Life Points had increased twice, bringing Haze Shenron down to 3000 points due to the ability of the Fire Princess dealing 500 points of effect damage every time its owner's Life increased. The card Last Will activated, allowing for the Special Summon of another Fire Princess. Graceful Charity activated, allowing for the drawing of three cards at a cost of discarding two. This also increased Nuova's Life Points by 500 due to Solemn Wishes and caused 1000 damage to Haze Shenron, bringing the Life Point totals to 5200 and 2000 respectively.

One Fire Princess attacked the Haze Shenron Shadow Token, but then Haze activated Turn Jump, skipping ahead three turns. Three gaseous clouds appeared in the Shadow Dragon's Spell and Trap Card zone and the Fire Princesses lost 600 Attack and Defense points to come to 700/900. The attacking Fire Princess stopped in its tracks, as Threatening Roar was also played, stopping any declaration of attacks.

"What was that?" Nuova asked, astounded that his monsters had weakened.

"Well, Nuova," Haze began, "…my Field Spell grants me one Pollution counter every standby phase up to a maximum of five, then subtracts the number of Pollution counters times 100 from the Attack and Defense points of all non-Machine monsters you control! Since three turns have passed due to Turn Jump, I get three counters, and each time your girls have lost 100 points for each one! One counter decreased by 100, two decreased by 200 and three decreased by 300! It's so simple!"

"I place a face-down to end my turn."

"Perfect. My move then!" Haze grinned as he drew. Another Pollution counter appeared in the Spell Card Zone, after which the Fire Princesses lost 400 Attack and Defense point to come to 300/500. Haze then summoned Tribe Infecting Virus (1600/1000) and played its ability, forcing him to discard a card and declare a type of monster, destroying all monsters of that type on the field. Haze declared 'Pyro', destroying the Fire Princesses. Afterwards, he used Monster Reborn to revive the card he discarded: Tribe-Shocking Virus (1700/100). Both viruses attacked, bringing Nuova down to 1900, followed by the Shadow Token, taking him down to 1400.

"One more attack and you are like the dead fish in my lake!" Haze shouted.

"Not quite. I draw!" Nuova shouted, the draw bringing him up to 1900 Life Points. He summoned his Plasma Eel (500/1200) and played Machine Duplication, summoning two more Plasma Eels. All three attached to monsters, the first to the Shadow Token, the second to the Tribe Infecting Virus and the third to Tribe-Shocking Virus. Nuova then ended his turn.

Haze drew and attacked with his Tribe Infecting Virus, but then Magical Trick Mirror was played, allowing Nuova to select a Spell Card from his opponent's graveyard and activate it. The chosen card was Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward three times, with the Plasma Eels draining 500 Attack points each time, while not losing any from the pollution due to them being Machines. By the end of it, the Shadow Token was at 0 Attack points, the Tribe Infecting Virus at 100 and the Tribe-Shocking Virus at 200. The subsequent attacks only knocked Nuova down 300 points to 1600. The monsters lost the last of their Attack points at the end of Haze's turn.

Nuova drew, and gained 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes. He then played Card of Demise, gaining up to five cards at the cost of discarding his hand in five turns. Afterwards came Soul Charge, Special Summoning the two Fire Princesses back to the field at the cost of 500 points per monster and the summoned monsters not attacking. He came out with just 1100 and ended with a face-down card.

Haze took his turn, gaining a fifth Pollution counter and decreasing the Fire Princesses' attack by 500 to 800. He played the ability of his Tribe Infecting Virus, declaring 'Machine' this time. All Plasma Eels were destroyed, bringing the attack points of the Viruses and Shadow Token back to normal. Haze switched his Shadow Token to defense mode and tried to attack with Tribe Infecting Virus but Nuova activated Loge's Flame, stopping all monsters with under 2000 Attack points from attacking.

"What? How could you have done that?" Haze asked, frightened.

"You would have been better off destroying the Princesses again Haze" Nuova answered.

"Don't think this is over! I have still got 2000 Life Points left while you only have 1100!"

"It is over. You should have destroyed the Fire Princesses."

"Ha! You're overconfident, brother. You can only remove 1000 of my Life Points but in my next turn I'll destroy them again!"

"There won't _be_ a next turn!"

Haze trubuted the Tribe-Shocking Virus to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch (2400/1000) and used its effect to destroy Loge's Flame, leaving monsters free to attack next turn.

Nuova drew. From his Draw, he gained 500 Life Points due to Solemn Wishes, thereby taking 1000 Life Points off Haze via the two Fire Princesses, leaving them at 1600 and 1000 respectively.

"Hah! Pathetic. You cannot attack me! Any attempt to do so will just get your weaklings destroyed! Now you have to end your turn!" Haze boasted.

"No, the time has come for your defeat Haze!" Nuova responded. "I activate Emergency Provisions, sacrificing Solemn Wishes-"

"That was stupid. Now you won't get life when you draw!"

"Let me finish. Now, since I tributed a Spell or Trap card, my Life Points increase by 1000, and you know what that means: my Princesses remove the last of your Life Points. Now be gone, Haze Shenron!"

Right after Haze's Life Points hit 0, he burst into flames and the scenery reverted back to Armstrong's office. The fire continued to burn, with Haze screaming. As his life force faded, his body evaporated and left Mr. Armstrong on the floor. There was also the Dragon ball, which had detached itself from his forehead and now turned orange, with its stars turning red. Nuova then let Toby, who still had his disguise, take control, after which the restored Dragon ball was taken. Toby then tested to see if Mr. Armstrong was alive, and after finding out he was, he threw him into the cell blocks, leaving him to be beaten up by the prisoners that he had mistreated for so long. Upon Nuova's advice, Toby also decided to take the ball back to faraway Mount Paozu for safekeeping, lest the One-Star Dragon get a hold of it.

After taking away the Two-star Dragon ball, Toby and Nuova discussed what Shadow Dragon should be hunted down next. Later though, the former remembered one other thing he wanted to do: he hadn't spoken to his sister in over a year, and Misty had to have been worried. However, he couldn't find any leads as to where she was. The only information that he managed to acquire was along the lines of Sector Security botching the investigation into his death, the rumors that had been constructed around his death and fining out something about a black rose terrorizing the Daimon Area.

Later, he ran into Pan, Puck and Goku Jr. along with another child, eventually revealed to be Vegeta Jr. and his mother. There seemed to be a squabble going on which turned into a violent brawl between the two Saiyan children, both of whom had taken to the air by the time he saw them. After identifying Vegeta Jr., Toby immediately flew between them in the blink of an eye. Their fists were flying towards each other, but he quickly caught both of them. Everyone mentioned that they were staying in New Domino City for the time being, so Toby decided to reside with Pan and Goku Jr. After all, although his purpose was to hunt down the remaining Shadow Dragons, there was no need to rush things, and besides, a little rest wouldn't hurt at all.

The next day, two letters came, one for Goku Jr. and one addressed to "the mysterious stranger from the Facility," even featuring a picture. Toby immediately recognized the picture as one of him that must have been captured by security cameras and in the letter was an invitation to an event called "the Fortune Cup", also enclosing an extra invitation should he wish to bring someone along. The letter for Goku Jr. had featured the same thing, but only bearing one invitation. Recently, he had taken an interest in Dueling, and got himself a Deck and Duel Disk, as did Puck, who requested to carry Toby's extra invitation.

Meeting Vegeta Jr. and his mother, it turned out that he also received an invitation to this event, and all four of the children agreed to participate on the spot. For Toby, it was an excellent opportunity to weed out more Shadow Dragons, as he could somehow feel that the hosts of two, maybe three Shadow Dragons would be there, and that was all that really mattered at that point in time.


	3. Chapter 3: The Fortune Cup

Chapter 3: The Fortune Cup/The Two-Turn Triumph

The day of the Fortune Cup arrived, and Toby, Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr. and Puck had arrived at the arena. Looking around, Toby could see that among the competitors was someone he once idolized: Akiza Izinski. He also saw two cyan-haired children, someone who looked like a knight, a man in glasses, a large bald brute and someone with a criminal mark. Focusing his mental energy on his Dragon ball, hidden underneath bandages along with his whole left hand, he found it pulling towards the aforementioned cyan-haired children and in the direction of the brute, the man with glasses, the knight and Akiza.

The pairings for each match took place, and resulted with a man named Greiger fighting one of the cyan-haired twins by the name of Leo. Toby, who was using the alias of "the Mysterious Stranger" (due to him having been addressed as such) so as to not draw attention to the fact that he was supposed to be dead, got picked for ninth place to duel against one Bolt Tanner. Places eleven and twelve were taken by a "Professor Frank" and the other cyan-haired child Luna Place thirteen went to Goku Jr., where he was to face the brute known only as Nappa, while Vegeta Jr. was fighting in fifteenth place against Puck. Toby was quite disappointed; he wanted to see how much Akiza's powers had developed during his one year away from the Arcadia Movement, and he was stuck in a different block from her.

Nuova Shenron eventually, due to Toby's excitement at being able to duel reach a point where it clouded his judgment, reminded him that they were there to expose the other Shadow Dragons. As Toby watched the first Duel of the Fortune Cup and focused on his goal, his Dragon ball started gently pulling towards the arena: one of the two people dueling was a Shadow Dragon Bearer, but which one? The second Duel came featuring the marked man, with no pull from the Dragon ball this time, nor did it come with the third when Akiza fought. It only started reacting during Duel number four.

Toby's Duel came, and he descended to the Arena. His opponent, judging by the lack of vibrations from his Dragon Ball, wasn't a Shadow Dragon Bearer. Toby opted to go first, which Bolt Tanner accepted. He played Sangan (1000/600), then the Spell Card Solemn Wishes. After this, he played two cards. The first was Altar for Tribute, destroying Sangan and giving 1000 Life Points. However, the monster's destruction let Toby search for a monster with 1500 Attack or less from his Deck and add it to his hand. Then came the second Spell Card, Last Will, Special Summoning Fire Princess (1300/1500) from Toby's Deck in exchange for shuffling again. After that, Graceful Charity was played, allowing the drawing of three cards at the cost of discarding two. Toby's Life Points increased at that point due to Solemn Wishes, and Fire Princess in turn took 500 points off his opponent. Pot of Greed was then played, allowing the drawing of two cards, and yet another gain of Life Points. By now, he was at 6000 points, and due to Fire Princess activating its effect a second time, his opponent was on 3000 now

"The Duel has only just begun, and already the mysterious newcomer has taken a firm lead!" the MC shouted.

"I will end my turn with two face-down cards," Toby stated. Bolt then used Cost Down, sending one card to the Graveyard to reduce the level of a monster in his hand. He then summoned Ushi Oni (2150/1950), and sacrificed it to summon Giant Ushi Oni (2600/2100). One of Toby's cards activated, Joyful Doom, giving him Life Points equal to that of the tributed monster for a total of 8150, and Fire Princess took off 500 Life Points to bring Tanner to 2500. Tanner's monster attacked Fire Princess, but another card activated, Self-Tribute. This decreased Toby's Life Points by 1000 to save his monster from destruction.

Toby took his turn, drawing and gaining 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes. He gained Life Points a second time from Marie the Fallen One in his Graveyard, sent there by Graceful Charity. Both times, Fire Princess activated its ability, removing 1000 Life Points in total from Tanner, bringing him down to 1500. He summoned another Fire Princess and then played Card of Demise. He drew up to five cards on condition that he discard his entire hand in five turns. The draw gave him 500 extra Life Points due to Solemn Wishes, and removed 1000 points off Tanner due to the two Princesses.

"Hahaha, short and sweet, just the way I like it!" he giggled after looking at his new hand.

"What do you mean kid?" his opponent asked.

"Your game is over!"

"Show me!"

"Oh, with pleasure!" Toby responded with 7950 Life Points. At that point he activated Spell Reproduction, discarding two spell cards to bring one back to his hand. Nobody had to wait long to see what he brought back. He played Pot of Greed, drawing two cards and activating the effect of Solemn Wishes in turn. He gained 500 Life Points and the ability of his two Fire Princesses activated, taking off the last 500 Life Points Tanner had. As soon as this happened, however, flames started to ignite on his body. Toby immediately called forth a gust of wind with his energy. This wind was sent at the man, and it extinguished the still small flames on his body.

"Absolutely amazing! In his second turn, the mysterious stranger has defeated his opponent, a past Duel Monsters Champion!" the MC roared.

Toby, however, ran to his unintended victim of his Psychic Powers and helped him stand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to lose control there."

"Does that mean you…" Tanner questioned

"… am sort of like _her_, but her use of power is what I endeavor to avoid. Please keep it a secret."

"Alright. You beat me, so it's only fair."

Toby then watched the next Duel with some interest, although his Dragon ball didn't react to anything. Nuova also noted that something supernatural had been happening to the two contestants Luna and Professor Frank: they seemed to be in some sort of trance while they dueled, but it ended in a tie, and due to one rule of the Fortune Cup, that meant Toby would automatically progress to the third round.

Goku Jr. and Nappa then took to the Arena, but while the Duel was exciting, it ended up with the former beating the latter with little trouble, and also with no Dragon ball activity on Toby. The same held true for the last match of round one, where Puck, although he was doing well, was beaten by Vegeta Jr. and with that, round two began.


	4. Chapter 4: The Saiyan Descendent

Chapter 4: The Saiyan Descendent/The fighting spirit.

Toby was slightly downhearted to learn that, after the first round, they hadn't managed to weed out the Shadow Dragon Bearers, but Nuova Shenron had managed to convince him to look at it as separating the chaff from the wheat to some extent, for if the winner still drew the signal of the Dragon ball, then that meant that he/she was one of them. Match one of round two began, with Greiger against Yusei Fudo. Toby concentrated his mental energy into his Dragon ball, but alas there was nothing pulling it to the Duel Arena. "Think about what that means Toby," Nuova spoke upon sensing his host's despair.

"Well, we got a signal from the first match of round one, but nothing from this one. Does that mean that the Dragon ball was hoodwinked?" Toby mentally asked him.

"That is not possible. There was definitely a Shadow Dragon Bearer there. Think deeper. Try looking at the second match of the first round."

"Okay, there was no attraction then, and there isn't an attraction now. Wait a second," Toby said, understanding dawning upon him. "Does that mean that the Leo kid is one of them?"

"Yes, but we cannot risk a confrontation now with all these people around. We will have to record the name and act at a later date."

"But wouldn't it be more prudent to strike now while we still know where he is?"

"While that is true, it is much too dangerous for the spectators, and may also cause some unwarranted vilification of the boy. We have to strike at precisely the right moment so as to not endanger innocent lives or the boy's social future."

"Good point Nuova."

The second match found Toby's Dragon ball activated, pulling towards the Duel Arena as Akiza and her opponent with the glasses, Commander Koda, began their Duel. "Shadow Dragon Bearer Number Two," Toby thought. As that Duel progressed, it looked like all Koda wanted to do was torture Akiza, which eventually backfired on him. Toby, due to a draw which resulted in both of his potential opponents being knocked out of the tournament, did not need to worry about a Duel in round two, and it went straight to Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr., two rivals like their forefathers before them. The battle was intense, with neither side willing to give the other an advantage, but eventually, Goku Jr. emerged victorious.

The semi-finals began, where Yusei and Akiza fought it out, but aside from trying to win the Duel, the former seemed to be trying to do something to or for the latter from what Toby could see. Ultimately, the Duel was won by Yusei, but then _he_ appeared: the man who Toby had come to despise, the one who killed him. It was Sayer, head of the Arcadia Movement.

The time had come for Toby and Goku Jr. to face each other, and the former let the latter go first. Goku Jr. summoned Psychic Armor Head (0/500) and sacrificed it to summon Double Cloth Armor (0/0). As soon as this armor was summoned, it seemingly attached to Goku Jr. himself, giving him a completely new, almost completely red, metallic look. Toby then drew, played Solemn Wishes and summoned Sangan (1000/600). His next move was to use it to attack Double Cloth Armor. Both cards were destroyed, and he lost 500 Life Points due to its ability. This also allowed him to add a monster from his Deck to his Hand. In addition to all of this, he played Last Will, summoning Fire Princess (1300/1500) directly from his Deck in exchange for shuffling it.

Goku Jr. began his turn by returning Psychic Armor Head to the field. Then, he summoned Burning Knuckle (0/1000) in Defense Position. Both cards equipped to his actual body, this time giving his right arm and head blue-colored armor pieces. The Knuckle gained 200 points for each Armor monster in play for a total of 400. He placed a card face-down and ended his turn. Toby drew, gained 500 Life Points and had Goku Jr. lose 500 Life Points, for totals of 4000 and 3500 respectively. He summoned a second Fire Princess (1300/1500) and played Pot of Greed, drawing two cards, gaining another 500 Life Points and this time taking 1000 Life Points off his young opponent to come to 4500 and 2500. The first Fire Princess attacked Burning Knuckle, and while the attack did succeed, that Princess had lost 400 points to come to 900 Attack points due to the fist's ability. The second Fire Princess attacked Psychic Armor Head, destroying it. Goku Jr. was now at 300 Life Points. Toby placed a face-down card to end his turn.

Goku Jr.'s turn saw him return Psychic Armor Head to the field. After that, a Spell Card was activated: Armored Gravitation, Special Summoning Big Bang Blow (0/0), Jet Gauntlet (0/1500), Over Boost (0/1000) and Active Guard (0/2500). All of these Armor pieces gravitated towards Goku Jr. and made him look like a complete suit of armor. Jet Gauntlet was destroyed, destroying the weakened Fire Princess. Goku Jr. then played Buster Knuckle (0/0), which appeared on his left arm and gained 1000 Attack points due to its special ability of gaining 200 Attack per Armor monster on the field. Next was Necromancy, bringing back Toby's Fire Princess (1300/1500) and Sangan (1000/600). After that came a direct attack from Buster Knuckle, made possible by the special ability of Over Boost, bringing him down to 3500 Life Points. The attack also winded Toby a bit as he actually took a real fist and not just a hologram. Goku Jr.'s face-down activated: Mischief of the Time Goddess, skipping one turn and going directly to the next turn's Battle Phase. Due to this, Over Boost's side effect of self-destruction was negated.

He then attacked one Fire Princess with Big Bang Blow, activating its ability. It was destroyed, along with all other monsters. "Now both of us take damage equal to the Attack points of each destroyed monster. So, 1300 multiplied by two is 2600, plus 1000 is 3600 and add another thousand makes it 4600. So, with only 4500 Life Points, you lose, Toby!" he spoke as he lunged forward.

"But you lose as well! It's a draw," Toby responded.

"Activate Active Guard to reduce my damage to zero before its destruction! So I win!"

"Not quite yet. Go Rainbow Life!"

Just as Goku Jr.'s fist was about to hit, Toby discarded a card. The fist impacted, and his Life Points increased to 8100. After the attack, the armor disintegrated and the field was clear. Toby drew, and gained 500 Life Points. He played Monster Reborn to revive his Fire Princess, and then he attacked Goku Jr. directly, ending the Duel. This time, Toby made sure not to let any of his power leak out, and by the end his opponent was standing just fine without any burns. This would dispel any notion that people would think him like the Black Rose Witch, or so Toby thought.

"Never a dull moment with the mysterious stranger!" announced the MC. "He advances to the finals to face Yusei Fudo!"


	5. Chapter 5: The Seven Star Dragon

**Author's note:** Just a reminder that any cards displayed in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 5:<span> The Seven-Star Dragon

As the crowd cheered, Toby thanked Goku Jr. for the Duel, further thanking him for the endurance training brought on by his very real attacks.

"But what will you do now?" Goku Jr. asked, noticing that Toby had something else on his mind.

"I've got to see that one contestant Koda before he recovers and leaves," Toby answered.

"Why?"

"Think back to Mount Paozu one year ago. Remember what I had?"

"Yes, the Four Star Dragon ball."

"Remember what your great-great grandfather asked me to do?"

"I think something about hunting down Shadow Dragons?"

"Yes, and remember what we said about their current state?"

"They live on inside… which Dragon ball is he?"

"We don't know… yet. We do know we need to find him and take him out as soon as possible. I must go now."

Toby then informed the MC that he had personal matters to take care of before the Duel with Yusei, and after being informed by the sponsor that in order to allow for that he will be given a half-hour delay, he walked out of the arena.

On his way to the infirmary, Toby sensed five people following him. He could sense that two of them were Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr., and after a while, he found Akiza and Sayer in his path.

"I've noticed you have quite the… gift," Sayer began.

"What of it?" Toby asked angrily.

"My name is-"

"I know who you are Sayer."

"Then you know I possess the same powers as you?"

"I do. Why are you hounding me like this?"

"We would like to give you a home, a safe haven for you, who possess the same powers as us. Join us, join the Arcadia movement, and you can have _true_ friends by your side."

"Gee, that's a tough one; you'll have to let me think. Here is my answer," and Toby immediately rammed his fist into Sayer's stomach, leaving him gasping for breath. Akiza began trembling.

"Why did you do that? He offered you a place among your own kind and you throw it back in his face! Why?" she asked.

"That's none of your business. Besides, I've wasted enough time here!" Toby spat. "Vegeeeta! I've got a favor to ask!"

"What?" Vegeta Jr. answered, annoyed at being discovered.

"Keep this man off my back would you? If you do I'll enter the upcoming Martial Arts tournament!"

"Deal," the child spoke happily, after which he immediately moved to stand between Toby and Sayer, the former of which had started running down the hallway. The moment Sayer tried to force the young Vegeta Jr. out of his way, he was immediately beaten to the ground.

"We cannot waste any more time!" Nuova told Toby. As soon as he reached the area where Koda was hospitalized, he noticed he had been followed by Akiza as well as Goku Jr., the latter, however, hiding. "Goku, I think I've thought up a challenge that will help you bring out your Saiyan side!" Toby yelled across the corridor

"Ooh, what is it?" asked an excited Goku Jr., emerging from his hiding place.

"Duel the girl that followed me. Judging from her last three duels, she hasn't gained much control over her powers, and I think it will be good for your training in the World Martial Arts Tournament."

"Why would I agree to duel this child?" asked a bewildered Akiza.

"If you duel him and win, I'll reconsider joining Sayer. Oh and Goku, catch!" Toby replied, tossing a small leather bag in the direction of his friend. "If you take too much punishment, eat one of what's in that bag."

"Okay, what will it do?" asked the child.

"It will revitalize you and heal whatever damage you took. What's more, if you take enough physical damage, you'll receive a power boost when you heal."

Toby then entered the room where Koda was resting, the latter's eyes opening just as the former arrived at his bedside. "What do you want?" he asked.

Toby then transformed into Nuova Shenron and revealed his Dragon Ball, after which seven black stars appeared on Koda's forehead. "The time to show yourself is nigh, Naturon Shenron!" Nuova spoke to him, after which a dark Dragon ball appeared on his forehead and he began screaming, causing both Akiza and Goku Jr. to investigate the commotion.

Koda screamed in agony as his body shrank and started to brown. He also sprouted horns from above his ears, and his nails were turning into red claws. At the end, he was about as big as Goku Jr. and looked like a mole with pink horns and claws. "Ah Nuova, is the time for us to strike here already? I was enjoying this body!" Naturon began.

"Fitting that you, the Shadow Dragon who steals bodies and mimics their abilities, inhabits a human who uses cards to mimic his opponents' history," Nuova said in response.

"So, which one of these humans do I possess? I'm feeling extremely naked, and I'm thinking the one that looks like Goku would be a perfect fit. I need some time in a Saiyan body!"

"You don't take anybody's body Naturon."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Well, how about this: defeat me and the person whose body you want in a Tag-team Duel, and I'll let you take that body."

"Fine, but I think maybe I'll try out the girl's body!" Naturon announced, a Duel Disk of Toby's make appearing on his arm. Nuova and Akiza activated their Duel Disks, as did the midget Naturon Shenron. Naturon went first, activating the Field Spell **Seven-Star: Dragon-shaped Rock**, which caused the scenery to change to show a barren, red canyon. An elongated dragon-like form started to take shape, soon vanishing and revealing Naturon Shenron on the field.

"What was the point of that spell?" Akiza scoffed.

"Notice how he has put himself on the field?" Nuova asked.

"So?"

"Each 'Star' Field Spell summons a Shadow Token, in this case an EARTH Rock-type monster. From the looks of things, this Shadow Token has 500 Attack and Defense points."

"I can easily destroy that!"

"We'll just see woman!" Naturon shouted. "I play Pot of Greed to draw twice, then I play Card Destruction! Meaning we all discard our hand and draw the same number of cards we discarded. Next, I summon Block Golem (1000/1500) and activate its ability: Since there are only EARTH monsters in my Graveyard, I can tribute it to bring two Level 4 or lower rock monsters back. So return, Minomushi Warrior (1300/1200), and Rockstone Warrior (1800/1600)."

"Interesting. You must have some sort of plan Naturon," Nuova stated.

"Well of course. I now use Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane to sacrifice one EARTH monster on my field to bring back a level 4 or lower Earth monster. I Tribute Rockstone Warrior to bring back Block Golem, and I tribute Block Golem again to bring back Muka Muka (600/300) and Mine Golem (1000/1900), I use Monster Reborn to bring back Rockstone Warrior and leave me with only two monsters in the Graveyard. Then I Tribute Muka Muka to summon Castle Gate (0/2400). I play another Pot of Greed for two cards, place two cards face-down and end my turn!"

"Fine, I draw!" Nuova shouted as his Life Points increased to 4200 as there was a Marie the Fallen One in his Graveyard, sent by Card Destruction. He played Pot of Greed for two free cards. He then activated Guardian Treasure. By discarding five cards, he could draw two cards, plus an extra card every Draw phase. The card Disgraceful Charity was then played, letting Nuova gain back the five lost cards. He summoned Fire Princess (1300/1500) and placed two cards face-down. Just then, one of Naturon's cards revealed itself: Rock Bombardment. This caused him to send a Rock monster of his choice from his Deck to the Graveyard to inflict 500 damage to Nuova, bringing him to 3700. Akiza played a Violet Witch (1100/1200) and tributed it to summon Rose Tentacles (2200/1200).

Naturon began his turn and gained a rock-like object in his Spell and Trap card zone. He played Card of Demise to gain five cards and tributed Minomushi Warrior to summon Granmarg the Rock Monarch (2400/1000). Its ability activated: it can destroy a face-down whenever it is Tribute Summoned, destroying one of Nuova's face-downs. Naturon's next action was weird: he attacked Rose Tentacles with Mine Golem. The attacking monster was immediately destroyed, dealing Naturon 1200 damage (2800), but also dealing 500 points of damage to Akiza due to its ability. Naturon activated Castle Gate's ability to destroy Rockstone Warrior and deal its Attack points to Akiza as damage. She took 2300 damage in total, leaving her with only 1700 points. The next move was to summon Mormolith (1000/900) and use its ability. Granmarg the Rock Monarch was sacrificed to destroy all monsters with Defense points lower than its Attack Points, destroying Fire Princess and Rose Tentacles.

Nuova began his turn, drawing two cards and gaining 700 Life Points for a total of 4400. He summoned The Thing in the Crater (1000/1200) and played Dark Hole to destroy all monsters on the field, but the Shadow Token remained.

"Why wasn't the Token destroyed?" Akiza asked.

"Its simple, I'm surprised Nuova didn't explain this…" Naturon began. " …but Shadow Tokens can only be destroyed by battle. Think, if we were to just succumb to any pitiful piece of magic then we would have died out before we left the Dragon Balls!"

"Dragon… Balls?"

"So she doesn't know. Perfect!"

Nuova then activated the ability of The Thing in the Crater, Special Summoning a Fire Princess (1300/1500) from his hand. He then activated Last Will, Special Summoning a second one from his Deck at the cost of it being shuffled, and Nuova played Monster Reborn to revive the third. Akiza took over, placing a card face-down, summoning an Evil Thorn (100/300) and activating its ability, destroying it to inflict 300 damage to Naturon (2500) and Special Summon up to two Evil Thorns from her Deck. She activated Fragrance Storm to destroy one Evil Thorn and draw a card, revealing it if it was a monster if she wished and drawing another card. She revealed Witch of the Black Rose and drew another card. However, she only set a card face-down.

Naturon drew, and a second rock appeared in his Spell card zone. He removed Rockstone Warrior and Minomushi Warrior in his Graveyard from play to Special Summon Gaia Plate the Earth Giant (2800/1000)

"Now begins the fun part!" Naturon boomed.

"Oh no…" Nuova began.

"Yes. Now I can activate the ability of my Shadow Token. By destroying Absorption Counters in my Spell and Trap zone, I can merge with a monster."

"But there is more."

"Yes. The number of Absoprtion Counters I need to give up is equal to half of the Level of the monster I am merging with rounded up, subtracted by one, two if the monster was mine to begin with. So since my monster is Level 8 and belongs to me, I need to sacrifice just two counters."

As Naturon spoke, the miniature rocks disappeared, and he launched into his monster, a blue orb expanding. After a while, he was in a completely different form. He looked just like his monster, only with more dragon-like features, the Dragon Ball being on his Forehead.

"Now…" Naturon spoke in a much deeper voice, "… feast your eyes on the **Absorbed Shadow Token**. The original attack points of both monsters used for the fusion are added together, in this case giving me 3300 Attack Points. Now I attack the Evil Thorn!"

Right then, Akiza activated Rose Blizzard, negating the attack and switching Naturon to Defense mode. Naturon immediately played Spell Reproduction, discarding two Spells to bring back one, and played it: Card of Demise, drawing until he held five cards. He then set three cards and activated Emergency Provisions to destroy them and gain 1000 Life Points for each card destroyed, leaving him at 5500, ending his turn with a set card. Nuova drew two cards, gained 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes, followed by 200 points from Marie the Fallen One (5100). Both times, all three Fire Princesses activated their abilities, taking off the 3000 points Naturon gained (2500). Nuova set three cards and ended his turn.

Akiza played Witch of the Black Rose (1700/1200) and activated its ability, allowing her to draw a card, destroying her monster if the card wasn't a monster. She drew Rose Fairy (600/1200) and summoned it. She then tuned the level 3 Rose Fairy to the Level 4 Witch to Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800), whereupon she activated one of its abilities. She removed a monster in her Graveyard from play to reduce the Attack of the **Absorbed Shadow Token** to 0, shouting "Rose Restriction" as vines proceeded to wrap around the dragonish rock. Afterwards, she attacked with the Dragon, but Naturon revealed Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward by three, and playing Attack Invulnerability. He chose to ignore the effect of not having his monster destroyed by battle in favor of not taking any battle damage.

"This is bad!" Nuova spoke with concern.

"Why? His Shadow Token was destroyed!" Akiza responed.

"Look at his field. See why he used Turn Jump?"

"The only thing it did was give him three Absorption Counters, which are useless now."

"You don't know Naturon! He isn't so careless as to let his main weapon die!"

"He just survived by that trap card, but one more attack and he is finished!"

Just then, a blue sphere enveloped Black Rose Dragon, and inside it, a shadow formed and wrapped around it completely. The form started to distort and grow, and by the end, a giant dragon-like creature stood where the **Absorbed Shadow Token** used to be. This time, the dragon's appearance was highly reminiscent of Black Rose Dragon: his skin was now black except for red claws and horns, he had red rose petals draped all over his arms, legs, and back with vines occasionally hanging out, his neck looked almost identical to the neck of Akiza's Dragon, and he even had the same mouth and tail, except for having two of the latter.

"Hahahahaha, I fooled you! This is just what I was waiting for!" Naturon boomed in the deep voice again, this time from the new Dragon-like creature.

"What? You can't absorb my creatures, can you?" Akiza asked in shock.

"I can. Remember I said that if I absorb one of my own creatures, I pay one less Counter. Well, that means I can absorb your monster, it just costs one more, and I have to fight it in battle! That's why I played Turn Jump, to get three counters, enough to absorb your Dragon! So now I have got a 2900 point **Absorbed Shadow Token!**"

"I end my turn!"

Naturon drew and played Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until they had 6 cards in their hand. He then Special Summoned Megarock Dragon (?/?) by removing from play at least 1 monster in his Graveyard. He removed Gaia Plate the Earth Giant, Castle Gate, Mormolith, Granmarg the Rock Monarch, Muka Muka, Mine Golem and Block Golem from play to give the Dragon 700 points for each monster, adding up to 4900 Attack and Defense points.

Naturon immediately attacked one Fire Princess with Megarock Dragon, destroying it and bringing Nuova's Life Points down to 1500, but then Rope of Life activated, forcing Nuova to discard his hand to revive the Princess with a 800 point boost (2100/1500). Disgraceful Charity, however, activated and stopped the loss of his hand. Naturon then attacked one of the weaker Fire Princesses with his 2900 point Absorbed Shadow Token, but Nuova activated Reduction Barrier, only losing 160 points instead of a fatal 1600.

Nuova drew two cards and collected 500 points from Solemn Wishes, dealing 1000 points of damage due to the two Fire Princesses' effects. Then, Marie the Fallen one further healed Nuova up to 2200 points, leaving Naturon with only 500 points left. First. Nuova played De-Fusion to destroy the **Absorbed Shadow Token** and return Black Rose Dragon to Akiza's Field

"Big deal! I still have the strongest monster!" Naturon boasted.

"It is over Naturon!" Nuova stated.

"Please! You are just barely holding on, and I've got the strongest monster in the game!"

"Activate Nightmare Binding. Now your Megarock Dragon loses 800 points and cannot be sacrificed, while I gain 800 Life Points! You know what that means?"

"No!"

"Yes. Since I gained Life Points, my Fire Princesses take off yours!"

Naturon Shenron burst into flames, and the flames grew bigger and bigger. The rocky canyon arena vanished, leaving them where they originally were. When the flames died down, Koda was there, as was the purified Seven-Star Dragon Ball.

Goku Jr., who was also present and watching the Duel, was quickly asked to take the Dragon ball to Mount Paozu and told that, if he was fast enough in his flight, that maybe he could catch the duel between the Mysterious Stranger and Yusei.

Akiza was wondering what all this was about, but was guided by Sayer, who had just arrived, away from the scene. Nuova then let Toby resume control, whereupon he flew back to the Fortune Cup Arena for his upcoming Duel against Yusei Fudo. He only had a few minutes to get back before he was disqualified.


	6. Chapter 6: The Stardust Dragon

Chapter 6: The Stardust Dragon

Toby was flying back to the Fortune Cup Stadium with Goku and Vegeta Jr., both of whom were wondering why someone had just taken an interest in him. As he re-entered, he was stopped by someone, probably the fifth person attempting to tail him.

"Something I can do for you sir?" Toby began.

"We have to admit, we were quite impressed by your Duels…" the man responded. "… so much so that the sponsor would like a word with you," the man responded

"I'm sorry, but I cannot spare the time. I've delayed the final match for too long,"

"On that note, are you done with your personal business?"

"Yes, I am, and by my calculations, my time allowance is almost up. I must get back to the arena. My apologies, but if the person in charge insists on seeing me, it will have to be after the match."

"Very well, but do not forget. He does not have much sympathy for people going back on their word."

The man stepped aside, allowing Toby to continue to the Duel Arena. Soon, the MC began speaking.

"Now for the final round of the Fortune Cup! The contestants are both ready to begin and the winner of this round will get the right to challenge the King: Jack Atlas!"

Toby could hear the crowd roaring. "Now, first, the Shooting Star of Satellite, the one who defeated the Black Rose: YUSEI… FUDO!"

The next thing Toby heard were shouts of "Satellite scum" and "Criminal" coming from the audience. "Now for the second duelist. He's a mystery, no one knows anything about him, but he is known here for his aces in the hole: THE… MYSTERIOUS… STRANGER!"

A smokescreen erupted, after which Toby was raised to the Duel Arena. The Duel soon got underway with Yusei making the first move, playing Shield Wing (0 / 900) in Defense mode, activating Double Summon, which allowed him to Normal summon a second time, and summoning Shield Warrior (800 / 1600) in Defense mode via this effect. He then set a card face-down and ended his turn.

Toby summoned his Plasma Eel (500/1200) and equipped it to Shield Warrior. Then he placed three cards face-down. Yusei summoned Speed Warrior (900/400), and attacked. The monster's attack points doubled because of its ability and the fact that it was Normal Summoned. Just then Toby activated Loge's Flame, stopping all of Yusei's monsters from attacking unless they had over 2000 Attack points. Yusei's Shield warrior lost 500 Attack points due to the Plasma Eel equipped to it.

Toby's turn began with Exchange. He gained a choice of either Healing Wave Generator or Sonic Chick, choosing the former and losing his Bad Reaction to Simochi. His next move was summoning Healing Wave Generator (800/1600) in Defense mode and then activating Card of Demise. This gave him a hand of up to five cards on the condition that he discards his hand in five turns. He then played Pot of Greed for two cards, and activated one: Card Destruction. This forced the discarding of both duelists' current hands in exchange for drawing the same number of cards from their respective Decks… or so they thought. Toby activated his set Disgraceful Charity, allowing both players to gain back the cards they thought they lost. In the end, Toby came out with 12 cards, and Yusei 4.

Toby then activated the Trap card Graverobber, allowing him to use Yusei's Double Summon to summon his own Fire Princess (1300/1500). After that, the Spell card Solemn Wishes was activated, followed by Graceful Charity. Due to the latter card, three cards were drawn then two were discarded. This activated the former, giving 500 Life Points to Toby and taking 500 off Yusei due to the Fire Princess, leaving totals of 4500 and 3500 respectively. Three cards were Set, after which Healing Wave Generator activated. It targeted the level of Fire Princess and healed Toby for 400 points, damaging Yusei by another 500 points.

Yusei, having a bad feeling about the cards set, set two cards of his own. He summoned Junk Synchron (1300/500), after which he Tuned the level 3 monster to the level 2 Shield Wing to Synchro Summon Junk Warrior (2300/1300). The monster tried to attack since it was strong enough to overcome Loge's Flame, but Toby revealed Gravity Bind, stopping any monster with Level 4 or higher from attacking. This was countered by Yusei playing Trap Jammer. The monster's attack headed towards the Attack mode Fire Princess, but then the Spell card Self Tribute was activated. Toby lost 1000 Life Points to prevent his monster's destruction, bringing him down to 3900. Yusei ended his turn, after which Shield Warrior lost the last of its Attack points.

Toby's turn began with him drawing, but just as he was about to gain Life Points, Yusei revealed Bad Reaction to Simochi, causing a _loss_ of 500 Life Points instead. A further loss was incurred after the activation of the ability of Marie the Fallen One from his Graveyard, bringing him to 3100 points.

"Can I talk with you after the Duel?" Yusei asked

"Maybe later. Apparently, the sponsor wanted a word with me after this Duel," Toby responded.

"Fine, but just take some advice: don't trust him!"

Toby tried using the Machine Duplication Spell Card to summon two more Plasma Eels (500/1200) and attaching them to Junk Warrior and Speed Warrior. The next move was to use the spell card known as Card Rotator to switch all of Yusei's monsters to Defense Position. Then he attacked Shield Warrior with Fire Princess, but Yusei activated Scrap-Iron Scarecrow to stop the attack. As the card was re-set, Toby ended his turn.

Yusei began his turn by equipping two Spell cards to Junk Warrior. The First was Fighting Spirit, granting 300 Attack points for each monster Toby controlled, which totaled five. Junk Warrior's Attack rose by 1500 to reach 3800, and the second was Junk Barrage. Junk Warrior attacked Fire Princess and destroyed it, but Toby activated the Trap Card Rainbow Life. By discarding a card, all damage he would have taken gets added to his total Life Points for the remainder of the turn. Thus he gained 2500 points, and an extra 750 from the effect of Junk Barrage, bringing him to 6350 Life Points. At the end of Yusei's turn, Junk Warrior (in addition to losing 300 Attack) and Speed Warrior lost 500 Attack each, bringing them to 3000 and 400 points respectively.

Toby took his turn, losing 800 Life Points due to his healing strategy being turned against him. Being on 5550 Life Points and not knowing what else to do, he placed a card face-down. Yusei's turn saw him use a Card of Demise to draw up to five cards, and then he summoned Quillbolt Hedgehog (800/800). Another Double Summon was played to summon Hyper Synchron (1600/800). Then, Axe of Despair was, strangely, equipped to the Plasma Eel on Shield Warrior, raising its strength by 1000. However, this triggered the side effect of Machine Duplication, destroying the Plasma Eels on Junk Warrior and Speed Warrior. Afterwards, Release Restraint Wave was activated, destroying every Spell and Trap card Toby controlled at the cost of tributing an Equip card, in this case Junk Barrage. Then, the Level 4 Hyper Synchron, Level 2 Quillbolt Hedgehog and Level 2 Speed Warrior were tuned to Synchro Summon a Level 8 Stardust Dragon (2500/2000).

Junk Warrior attacked, its attack now at 2900, destroying Healing Wave Generator. Stardust Dragon followed with a direct attack, and then Speed Warrior, bringing Toby down to 2950 Life Points. Toby began his turn, but Bad Reaction to Simochi was still in play on Yusei's field, so the 300 Life Points he _would_ receive from Marie the Fallen One instead damaged him. Toby set the one card which might save him, and let Yusei take his turn. During that time, Stardust Dragon attacked, triggering Toby's set Mirror Force. However, Yusei merely activated its 'Victim Sanctuary' ability, tributing it to negate the card destruction effect and destroy the card. Toby didn't realize the mistake he made until the card was gone, and three more monsters were on the field. Junk Warrior then attacked directly, bringing Toby down to 50 Life Points, and Speed Warrior removed those shortly afterwards.

"What an intense Duel, but what else could you expect from a Final!" the MC roared. "Yusei Fudo and The Mysterious Stranger, both extraordinary duelists, forced to duke it out against each other, and now Yusei wins the right to challenge Jack Atlas!"

Toby just waved at the crowd. The loss was a little disheartening, he hadn't really taken well to losing, and he had so much experience with loss, but many a time he managed to override that feeling with the joy at having got a chance to play in the first place, even win many a time. Remembering his scheduled meeting with the sponsor, he started walking off, following the man who spoke to him earlier who was waiting by one of the entry points to the Duel Arena. On his way there, Toby's Dragon ball started vibrating and trying to pull itself in two different directions. He knew what this meant, two Shadow Dragon Bearers were employed with Sector Security.

The sponsor, Rex Goodwin, asked Toby a rather predictable question: what was his real name. "Sorry, Mr. Goodwin, but that is very privileged information," Toby responded. Remembering Yusei's words of not to trust this man and his own apprehensions of letting people know there was essentially a walking corpse among them, he made it so that the only people who ever knew his real name were Pan, Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr, Puck, Goku Sr. and Nuova Shenron.

"I saw what you did to Mr. Armstrong at the Facility," Goodwin continued.

"Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all, he no longer held any favor with me by that point. What I do want to know is what exactly happened to make him transform like that?"

"I'm sorry, but that doesn't concern you. Sufficed to say it's my job to deal with people like him."

"Hmmm, you don't seem to be in a very cooperative mood today. I think we can schedule another meeting for a later date. You may go now, Mysterious Stranger."

With that, Toby left Goodwin's box and returned to Pan and his new friends to watch the Turbo Duel against Jack Atlas. Something abnormal happened late in the duel, causing Jack's Duel Runner to crash, after which his Life Points hit zero, and Yusei was crowned the new King.


	7. Chapter 7: The Five Star Dragon

**Author's note: **Just a reminder that any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards. I am only going to post this warning when it is necessary. Other than that, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

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><p><span>Chapter 7:<span> The Five-Star Dragon

As the Fortune Cup came to a close, Toby decided he must go hunt down the other Shadow Dragon Bearer aside from Koda that he had identified at the tournament: Leo. Before he could do so, he remembered he had scheduled a meeting with Yusei Fudo for after the Title Duel. After finding him, the two of them retreated to a secluded area.

"Why the secrecy?" Yusei asked, confused as to why Toby wanted their meeting to be private.

"If I told people who I really am, it'll cause a lot of grief for me," Toby responded.

"Back in our Duel, I sensed something when you played the Plasma Eels."

"Ah, very sharp and to the point, I like that. So what did you sense?"

"Despair, fear, yet happiness and determination as well."

"Well, I think the despair and fear stems from the fact that I'll never be able to lead a normal life."

"Why not?"

"I'm essentially a walking corpse, and while I am eternally grateful to the one who gave me a second chance at life, the prospect of having to spend my life hidden behind a hat and trenchcoat is kinda terrifying."

"How are you this 'dead man walking'? Also, if you don't like the idea of living behind a disguise, you can start with taking it off and showing me your face."

"Very well, but aside from some close friends, you are the first to see my true face and I only show you this because you beat me in a Duel, fair and square," Toby sighed in defeat, after which he removed the large hat, exposing his head to Yusei. "Wow, it feels so good to be out of that!"

"You have a beautiful face, why keep it hidden?" Yusei wondered.

"Technically I'm dead. Back to what you sensed, the happiness is just me enjoying dueling. It is about the only thing I enjoyed, and the only thing I could look forward to. I would say the determination stems from three things."

"What are they?"

"Well, firstly, determination to win my Duels. Secondly, determination to keep my… talents… in check."

"Your talents? What do you mean?"

"I'm like the Black Rose, except I try to control my powers."

"What is the third thing?"

"In exchange for being brought back to life, I have been entrusted with a mission."

"What is this mission? Are you a Signer as well?"

"No, I don't even know what a Signer is. I have been charged to hunt down six people who have particularly evil beings in their spirits, and destroy these beings."

"How evil?"

"Well, let me put it this way, when they surfaced a hundred years ago, they almost destroyed not only the Earth, but the entire universe as well."

"How is your hunt going?"

I have already destroyed two of these beings, and I know where a third is located."

"Who was possessed by these creatures, and who is your third target?"

"The first one I hunted down was the Facility Chief, Mr. Armstrong I believe it was. The second was that Commander Koda guy in the Fortune Cup. As for target number three, he's a boy named Leo."

"Do you actually kill the people when you hunt down these marks?"

"No, but I wager I've been lucky. I managed to weed them out before they took over the host, thus saving the people's lives. Do you want to see me hunt one of these creatures?"

"Yes, but only to find reassurance that these people survive."

"Sure, I think that can be arranged." Toby told Yusei, and with that, they proceeded to find the twins Leo and Luna.

The four of them eventually met up as the stadium was emptied, and immediately went to an area relatively out of the way, after which Toby transformed into Nuova Shenron.

"What? Who are you?" Leo asked in shock.

"I am here to expunge a dark force concealed in the boy," Nuova responded.

"Dark… force?"

"Yes, there is something inside you that, if not brought out and stopped now, could very well spell disaster for the entire galaxy."

"Please then, get rid of it!" Leo shouted in panic.

"Very well," Nuova responded, after which he exposed his Dragon ball, and after seeing nothing on the child's forehead, asked him to show his hand. After nothing came of that, upon Nuova's orders, Leo lifted up his shirt, revealing five black stars on his stomach.

"Leo never had those stars before!" Luna gasped in surprise.

"That is because the evil inside him hid," Nuova told Luna, before re-addressing Leo. "The time has come for you to emerge, Rage Shenron."

Immediately, Leo started screaming and clutching his stomach as a lump appeared there. He started shrinking, gaining a fin on his head and losing his legs to gain more of a torso, the colors changing to red and pale brown. Rage Shenron then stood in Leo's place. "Ah, I have been anticipating your arrival Nuova!" the miniature dragon spoke. "For those who don't know, my name is Rage Shenron, and as for you Nuova, I would like to congratulate you on the defeat of Haze Shenron and Naturon Shenron, even though they were easily the weakest among the Shadow Dragons!"

"What does that make you then?" Yusei asked.

"Hah! You really need to ask. With the abilities I wield, you will come to know me as the most densely powerful of all the Seven Dragons!"

"Seven! I thought there were six!"

Rage began laughing hysterically, a Shadow Dragon Duel Disk growing on his arm. "The seventh one is right by you, you stupid human! Nuova Shenron, the Four-star Dragon. Didn't his Dragon ball give it away? Anyway, enough of this! I challenge you to a Duel, brother!"

Rage Shenron activated his Duel Disk, as did Nuova. Going first, Rage activated **Five-Star: Descending Dragon Thunder**, which caused the skies to become dark and created a thunderstorm. Lightning was striking everywhere, but one bolt emerged from the sky, taking the form of a roaring yellow dragon, and crashed into the ground, revealing Rage.

"What just happened?" Luna asked worriedly.

"Rage has summoned a Shadow Token with his Field Spell," Nuova responded. "In this case, he looks like a 500 Attack-point LIGHT Thunder monster"

"Wait, so after Naturon being EARTH and this guy being LIGHT, what was Haze?" Goku asked.

"DARK"

Rage Shenron then proceeded to summon Thunder Knight (1300/1200), which gained 800 Attack points due to there being two Thunder-type monsters in play: itself and Rage's Shadow Token.

Nuova played Pot of Greed for two cards and played Guardian Treasure, discarding five cards to draw two cards and gaining the right to draw two cards each Draw phase. Disgraceful Charity was then played, returning the discarded cards back to Nuova's hand. He played Solemn Wishes, followed by Graceful Charity. This allowed him to draw three cards at the cost of discarding two, and gaining 500 Life Points in the Process due to the former Spell card. He then summoned The Thing in the Crater (1000/1200) and activated Monster Reborn to revive the Fire Princess (1300/1500) discarded via Graceful Charity. After that, he activated Altar for Tribute, destroying The Thing in the Crater and giving him 1000 Life Points as well as activating its special ability of Special Summoning one Pyro monster from Nuova's hand, in this case a second Fire Princess. Nuova also activated Last Will, special summoning a third Fire Princess. In the end, Nuova was left with 5500 Life Points while Rage was left with 3500. Nuova set one card and ended his turn.

Rage drew, and gained a blob of dark pink jelly in his Spell and Trap card zone. He summoned Apocatequil (1800/1200) and tributed it to summon Zaborg the Thunder Monarch (2400/1000), using its ability to destroy a Fire Princess. After that, he discarded one Thunder Dragon to bring two to his hand, and then played Polymerization, sending two Thunder Dragons to the Graveyard to Special Summon Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon (2800/2100). He then played Card of Demise, drawing five cards providing he discard his hand in five turn, then Double Summon to allow him to summon Thunder King Rai-Oh (1900/800). By now, Thunder Knight's Attack points had now received a 2000 point boost, bringing it to 3300. Rage attacked another Fire Princess with Rai-Oh, but Nuova triggered Negate Attack, stopping the Battle Phase.

Nuova began his turn by collecting 500 Life Points from drawing while Solemn Wishes was in play, thus dealing 1000 damage to Rage due to the two Fire Princesses. He also gained 200 points from Marie the Fallen One in his Graveyard, further damaging his opponent, now on 1500 Life Points, while he was on 6200. He summoned a Plasma Eel (500/1200) and equipped it to Thunder King Rai-Oh, knowing that its abilities of disallowing cards by any other method than drawing, and potentially stopping Special Summoning could get especially problematic. As a precaution, he set one card face-down and ended his turn.

Rage drew, gained another counter, placed a card face-down and played Makiu the Magical Mist, selecting his Thunder Knight and giving it a 1000 Attack point boost, bringing it to 4300 Attack Points. Rage attacked, but Nuova triggered Mirror Force, destroying all of his monsters, save for the Shadow Token, which could only be destroyed by battle.

"Gah, you're not going to make this easy on me are you!" Rage shouted.

"I am afraid not," Nuova responded.

"Well, tough. I call the Electric Slime!"

"So you are finally using those Counters?"

"Yes. I attach my two Electric Slime Counters to your Fire Princesses, immobilizing them completely. It's a whole new kind of enemy: it has no face, no stomach, no limbs, and they have no idea where to attack it to make it stop. They cannot attack, defend your Life Points or activate their abilities because they are too busy trying to rid themselves of this new enemy!"

"But you can only attach those in the Battle Phase, correct? Even with that it won't be enough!"

"That does it! You have earned my wrath! I play Turn Jump, skipping the turn count ahead three turns and giving me three more Electric Slime Counters. I remove the two Counters already in play from your Fire Princess and activate the Special Ability of my Shadow Token: Electric Slime Body Build!"

The Electirc Slime Counters started to split up and pile on top of Rage himself. More slime kept building up on him, until a point later, when the huge mass had formed in the shape of the original Rage Shenron, except the original Rage was where the giant Rage's Dragon Ball would have been.

"I assume you know what this does, but I'll be kind and explain it for our observers: When I have five Electric Slime Counters, I can Tribute them and my Shadow Token to summon **Electric Slime Dragon**! This creature gains 250 Attack Points for every Electric Slime Token used to create it," Rage informed. "It has other abilities as well, for instance, I attack your Fire Princess: Dragon Thunderclap!"

Although the Fire Princess was strong at 1300 Attack to 1250 and counter-attacked, the blast lodged itself in the Electric Slime instead of destroying it. In addition, Rage didn't lose any Life Points. The blast soon shot out of the slime and instead hit the Fire Princess, destroying it. "But that is not all…" Rage continued. "I can choose where to send this new attack, so if I wished; I could get rid of your Plasma Eel."

Rage then activated Card of Sanctity, allowing both players to draw until they are holding six cards. Afterwards, he activated Spell Reproduction, discarding two Spells to bring back one, placed two cards face-down and revealed Mischief of the Time Goddess, skipping one turn and going directly to next turn's Battle Phase. Rage revealed Turn Jump at that point, moving the turn count forward by three and giving three Electric Slime Counters. His turn ended with him tributing the counters to give 750 Attack Points to the dragon (which proceeded to grow in size), him placing a card face down and activating Emergency Provisions to destroy it and gain 1000 Life Points

Nuova drew two cards due to Guardian Treasure, gained 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes, 200 from Marie the Fallen One and had his lone Fire Princess deal 1000 damage to Rage, bringing him to 1500. He sacrificed his Fire Princess and Plasma Eel to summon Cloudian – Eye of the Typhoon (3000/1000). Knowing that the effect of Aqua-type monsters could negate the abilities of Rage's Dragon, he attacked with this new monster. However, from the Graveyard, Rescuer from the Grave activated, allowing Rage to remove 5 cards to end the Battle Phase. With the removal of Thunder Knight, Three Thunder Dragons and Thunder King Rai-Oh, Nuova's monster stopped in its tracks.

Rage took his turn, discarded his hand per Card of Demise's other condition and collected an Electric Slime Counter, knowing that if the **Electric Slime Dragon** battled an Aqua type monster with higher Attack points, his monster would be destroyed instantly. He played another Card of Sanctity, after which he activated the trap Take One Chance, allowing him to randomly use one card in his Graveyard, irrespective of Summoning conditions. The card he chose was Turn Jump, again moving the turn count forward three times and giving three Electric Slime Counters. The four counters then attached to the Dragon, further increasing its size so that it must have been noticeable to everyone in the city, and giving it 1000 Attack points for a total of 3000. He played Spell Reproduction again, discarding two spells to bring one back.

He set a card and attacked with his **Electric Slime Dragon**, then activated Turn Jump. Again, the turn count moved forward three and gave three new Counters, all of which were immediately sacrificed to give 750 Attack points to the Dragon, further increasing its size to an even larger form that engulfed parts of buildings, and its Attack strength to 3750. With that, the attack resumed, but Nuova revealed Rain Storm.

With that, the sky turned dark, and rain started pouring down. Nuova reduced the Attack points of Cloudian – Eye of the Typhoon by 1000 to 2000, allowing him to destroy one card on the field. As the rain pounded in, the Electric Slime Dragon roared and crackled with electricity, which turned into small explosions. Those small explosions soon became larger and larger, until eventually, the entire Dragon exploded, damaging the surrounding area of New Domino City. Amid a pile of rubble, Rage Shenron lay with only one Electric Slime Token. Seeing no other choice, Rage switched his Shadow Token to Defense mode and weakly commanded his Counter to attach to Eye of the Typhoon, but since it was an Aqua-type monster, the Slime instead detonated.

Nuova, in his turn, commanded his monster to attack the 500 point Shadow Token. The Cloudian's special ability activated, changing the Battle positions of all monsters, therefore switching Rage's Shadow Token to Attack mode. The attack went through, with Rage screaming amidst the fury of the monster as he lost the last 1500 of his Life Points and the Shadow Token exploded.

After the explosion, Leo was found in his normal body with a large bulge in his shirt. Nuova reached into his shirt and removed the cleansed Five-star Dragon ball.


	8. Chapter 8: The Tournament

**Author's note:** Just a reminder that the story has undergone some revision. Other than that, I hope you enjoy, and also another update will probably happen soon.

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><p><span>Chapter 8:<span> The World Martial Arts Tournament

Toby gave the Dragon ball to Goku Jr. and told him to take it back to 'where the others were'.

"Will Leo be alright?" asked Luna.

"He will be fine. He's lucky we got to him when we did," Toby responded.

"How so?"

"We expunged the dragon before it took over his being."

"What would have happened if you were _unlucky_?"

"The dragon would have taken over his being, and shared its life force with his, so if it died, so would he."

Toby then turned to Vegeta Jr. and addressed him. "Let us discuss how Sayer got by you, and after that, we will talk about the Martial Arts Tournament!"

Vegeta Jr. complied, albeit a bit unwillingly. He revealed that his failure to stop Sayer following during the hunt for the Seven-Star Dragon stemmed from his mother and father looking for him and the fact that Sayer seemed to be beaten far enough into the ground at the time. Toby wasn't sure he believed this, but hey, he promised that he'd be in the tournament. Besides, it would feel good for him to flex his muscles and see how well everyone else could fight.

There were two days left until the Tournament, so Toby, along with Vegeta Jr. and Goku Jr., went with Pan to register. Toby ended up in the Junior Division under his alias of the Mysterious Stranger. He had decided to wear his dark blue hat and trench coat, his usual disguise, as he still didn't want to be found out.

The first match was Goku Jr. against Vegeta Jr. and it turned out to be a rather intense battle. Toby had to wait for quite a while for his match, where he was pitted up against one person who made his early school life hell: Zarbon, known to the younger pupils as Zarbon the Beautiful. This boy had teal skin and long green hair tied into a ponytail. Not only did he have a large muscled body in addition, he also loved showing off his supposed beauty. Anyone who disagreed was beaten into the dirt with impressive (by normal standards) fighting skills, although on reflection they weren't that great compared to the warriors of old. However the narcissistic Zarbon always seemed to make a point of demonstrating them on Toby at the earliest opportunity, as Toby kept insisting that there was no beauty to be found in the teal-skinned boy with long green hair in a ponytail. Had the Black Rose incident not surfaced, it would have probably been Toby instead of Akiza that dropped out of the academy. He was actually thankful that Akiza had caused that incident when and where she did; otherwise it was likely that nobody would have somehow prompted Zarbon to transfer to another Duel Academy.

A smirk had appeared on Toby's face. He had tried to do a bit of research beforehand: apparently, Zarbon was trying his hand at the Martial Arts Tournament for the fourth time in a row, and so far the only reason why he _didn't_ win the Junior Division championship was because there was some unknown child who looked stronger and who wouldn't accept a bribe from Zarbon's rich parents. Somehow, the prospect of payback was quite tempting to Toby: after so long being on the receiving end of the beatings, it was strangely compelling to reverse the positions… in public no less, thereby exposing him as the weakling he is.

The match started with Toby's opponent saying that as soon as he wins, "that ugly hat is coming right off!" Toby just laughed at this. As the teal-skinned fighter charged, Toby just waited. A punch was thrown, after which he appeared next to his opponent and brought a knee right up into his stomach. Next, Zarbon was kicked in the head and sent flying to the edge of the ring, whereupon he immediately started shaking with fury.

"How dare you ruin my physical image! It was magazine front cover material!" he shouted, aiming a fist at Toby's stomach. However, his target was gone, and the next minute, he found himself experiencing a sharp pain to his back and flying to the other side of the arena. "Wow!" the announcer started. "This is the first time Zarbon's rush attack failed!"

Toby immediately moved to where his opponent was and pinned him down with a foot on his back. Zarbon's face was repeatedly bashed into the ground afterwards. His opponent knew that there were other people that had suffered at the hands of him, other people's lives that he made hell. Now it was only fair, according to Toby, that he be put in that position of being trapped. Toby's fury at the boy caused his body temperature to skyrocket. Seconds later, Zarbon began squirming and screaming. Toby's foot didn't move, despite the cries from his pinned opponent. He managed to get control of his anger long enough to stop the torture after a minute, but by that time, his footprint had been burned into Zarbon's back.

"That was for Toby Tredwell!" he whispered in his defeated opponent's ear, after which Zarbon was kicked away from the edge and ended up flying towards the other end of the stadium, where he crashed through the wall and created a small crater in the concrete. "The young fighter, the Mysterious Stranger, advances to the next round! What a match, this is the first time that Zarbon has been knocked out of the first round, and in a relatively small amount of time!" the announcer spoke.

As soon as Toby returned to the waiting area, he was greeted with cheers from the other junior participants. Apparently, the one hunch about him still being somewhat of a bully and (still) narcissist was true. Some of the children were also scared of what he could do, but he told them to relax; he won't do the same to any of them. Toby continued advancing up the ladder. However, he was much kinder to his later opponents, restricting his use of force to using one punch that would knock them off the arena, using a slight pile driver to land them out of the ring, throwing them gently out the ring or just waiting until they were close enough and either watching as they fall out of the ring, or gently shoving them off the arena.

Toby got to the finals, and there, just like in the Fortune Cup, he faced the young great-great-grandson of Goku. He started out defensively as his opponent turned Super Saiyan, but he treated this like a training session. He kept giving pointers to the young Goku Jr. and pointing out mistakes that could be exploited, all the while still giving the audience a good show. Goku Jr. tried to use this advice, and as the fight progressed, he did start to show improvement. At a later point though, the crowd started to get restless, and that was when Toby, with the consent of Goku Jr., proceeded to finish the match. Now the young Super Saiyan was up against something markedly different from before, someone who seemingly had a lot of experience fighting judging from the amount of skill displayed.

Goku Jr. got knocked out of the ring, after which Toby was declared the winner, and with that, he was given a prize of ten million zeni. He didn't have much use for the money though, so he gave most of it to Pan. However, when he found her, she also asked about his first match, and what was happening there, to which Toby replied that Zarbon was a very old enemy and told her of his encounters with the boy in question. He also told her of how good it felt to get that off his chest, especially considering that, somehow, he couldn't bring himself to tell his own sister. Misty seemed like the type that would see Zarbon the way he saw himself; after all, she herself was a model!

Toby was relaxing at the shore of the island hosting the World Martial Arts Tournament, because while he could, he didn't really want to leave without Pan and the others. They were starting to grow on him, probably because, as long as he was the Mysterious Stranger, they were the only family he had. Eventually, he'd have to find Misty Tredwell and let her know what was going on, but he just couldn't find her at present.

Someone joined him on the beach later that afternoon. It was Mina Simington, one of the associates of Rex Goodwin. She apparently followed Toby to the island with a message from her superior: he wanted to see him again. Later they were joined by Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr. and Pan. It was at that point that Toby noticed his Dragon ball reacting. When he focused his energy, the Dragon ball gently pulled him in the direction of none other than Mina.

Toby immediately changed to Nuova, after which he showed his Dragon ball, saw six stars appear on Mina's chin and began speaking: "It is now time for you to reveal yourself, Oceanus Shenron!"

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><p><strong>End<strong>** note:**Personally, I was thinking maybe Sherry LeBlanc from the later Yugioh 5Ds arcs would have been a better candidate for Oceanus Shenron, but she wasn't in New Domino at the time. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review if you can.


	9. Chapter 9: The Six Star Dragon

**Author's**** note: **Just a reminder that cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards. Also, one thing that I failed to mention was that Zarbon from the previous chapter was an OC based on the Dragonball Z Character Zarbon.

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><p><span>Chapter 9:<span> The Six-Star Dragon/the assistant.

Mina started screaming, clapping her hands to her chin as it sprouted a blackened Six-Star Dragon ball. Immediately afterwards, her face grew in length and, to a lesser degree, size, and began deforming. Her arms and legs turned a dark blue, she sprouted bat-like wings which were dark blue around the bone and a pale orange on the flesh. Part of the front side of her body had also turned this pale orange colour. She also sprouted claws, horns, a tail and a fin.

Oceanus Shenron eventually finished transforming into the hideous dragon, but then started spinning and transformed again into a light blue skinned woman with an abundance of blue hair who was clad in a turquoise material.

"Princess Oto?" Pan wondered aloud.

"Ah, you must be that little girl from over a century ago," the dragon-woman spoke, her voice sounding much more feminine compared to the masculine voice that she emitted while transforming.

"More or less, yes. Why are you still around? The Dragon balls haven't been used for over a century!"

"Your last wish revived us all, and due to the actions of more of you foolish humans, we were gifted with prolonged life. Now the time has come for us to finish what we started a hundred years ago!"

"You mean the Dragon balls were used again by someone else?"

"No, that was not the case," Nuova answered. "There was another incident in more recent years that fed us enough negative energy to survive."

"Now what Nuova? Are we ready to strike?" Oceanus interjected.

"I'm afraid not Oceanus."

"Then why did you call me out if we aren't going to destroy this blue sphere in space?"

"We have tormented this world for long enough."

"I cannot believe one of our own kin would talk like that. If you see it that way, we will Duel with cards to see who survives," Oceanus spoke, a Shadow Dragon Duel Disk appearing on her left arm.

"I can't let you fight this battle alone!" Goku Jr. shouted, also equipping his Duel Disk and inserting his Deck.

Oceanus, Nuova and Goku Jr. activated their Duel Disks, and, going first, Oceanus activated **Six-Star: Dragon in the Clouds**, whereupon the scene changed to show everyone in the clouds. A large, long black/dark blue dragon was seen bursting out of and diving into each cloud. The scenery changed again to show a tornado in the desert. It stopped, and revealed Oceanus' first form of the hideous winged monster. They all found themselves on the beach again, with her in her dragon-like form on the field.

"So Nuova, what Shadow Token is this?" Goku Jr. asked

"A 1500 Attack Point WIND Winged Beast-type Shadow Token," Nuova responded.

"So it should be pretty easy to take out."

"Not one Shadow Token can be easily disposed of."

Oceanus then summoned Blue Expense Falcon (800/800) and used its ability to Special Summon a level 4 or lower Dragon-type monster, choosing Cave Dragon (2000/100). Her third action was playing Double Summon to Normal Summon again, summoning Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds (1000/1000) as a result. For her fourth action this turn, she played Card of Demise to get a hand of five cards in exchange for discarding her hand in five turns and Tributed Cave Dragon and Blue Expense Falcon to summon Simorgh, Bird of Divinity (2700/1000). She then set a card face-down. The End Phase arrived, and Oceanus revealed that during every player's End Phase, due to her new monster, each player takes 1000 damage minus 500 for each Spell and Trap card the player controlled. In this case, she controlled two Spells, her face-down and her Field Spell, so she received no damage, but Nuova and Goku Jr. both took 1000 damage.

Goku Jr. took his turn, summoning Psychic Armor Head (0/500) and sacrificing it to summon Double Cloth Armor (0/0). He placed two cards face down, and just as he ended his turn, Nuova's Life Points went to 2000. When Nuova took his turn, he placed a card face-down and summoned Sangan (1000/600). That was when Double Tribute activated; destroying Nuova's monster and Simorgh, Bird of Divinity. An added bonus of that sacrifice was Sangan's ability, letting Nuova add a monster with 1500 Attack or less from his Deck to his Hand. He played Solemn Wishes, placed two cards face-down and ended his turn.

Oceanus, upon drawing, gained a mini-whirlwind in her Spell and Trap Card zone. Upon gaining this, the Shadow Token changed its appearance from the dragonish monster to the sea-princess form. She placed a card face-down, summoned Absurd Stealer (100/0) and attacked Double Cloth Armor with it. However, Goku Jr. triggered Martyr Curse, targeting his own Armor and Oceanus' Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds (with its effects negated). Both monsters were destroyed, and Oceanus was due to receive 500 Damage due to the effect of the Armor, but she activated Spell of Pain, transferring the damage to Nuova instead, bringing him down to 1500.

"I'm sorry Nuova," Goku Jr. immediately, and tearfully, apologized

"Focus on the Duel, Goku!" Nuova commanded. "It is not over yet."

Goku Jr. took is turn, free to return Psychic Armor Head to the field now that Oceanus' Barrier Statue was gone. He then activated Armored Gravitation, Special Summoning Buster Pyle (0/0), Jet Gauntlet (0/1500), Over Boost (0/1000) and Active Guard (0/2500), the last of which gained an extra 2500 Defense points due to Goku Jr. controlling five Armor monsters. He attacked the Shadow Token with Buster Pyle, but Oceanus revealed Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward by three turns. Due to this, more mini-whirlwinds appeared, bringing the number up to four. The fist was deflected, with a whirlwind disappearing.

"What?" Goku Jr. shouted.

"It's simple," Oceanus responded. "I work off Whirlwind Counters, and for these, I get a 'minus one' value, meaning that the counters I have to use is subtracted by one. I transformed from the Winged Beast form into this Spellcaster form at the cost of one minus one counter, but I needed the counter to do so or else it would have been zero minus one, resulting in a total of -1, stopping the transformation. I can tribute two counters, minus one, to block an attack, stop any subsequent effects and end the Battle Phase. What is more, after the turn comes back to me, this Spellcaster form, 'Princess Oto', can regenerate half of the Whirlwind Counters I used, rounded up!"

Nuova took his turn by gaining 500 Life Points, summoning the Thing in the Crater (1000/1200) and activating Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards (gaining Life Points again). Then came Double Summon and Fire Princess (1300/1500). Nuova activated his set Altar for Tribute, sacrificing The Thing in the Crater to gain 1000 Life Points back, deal Oceanus 500 points of damage due to the Fire Princess and summon another Fire Princess from his hand. Nuova's set Last Will revealed itself, Special Summoning a third Fire Princess from the Deck in exchange for shuffling afterwards. Graceful Charity was played, allowing the drawing of three cards at the cost of discarding two. Solemn Wishes activated again, giving 500 Life Points, and the Fire Princesses damaged Oceanus by 1500. At the end of it, he was at 4000, she was at 2000 and Goku Jr. was at 3000. He placed two cards face-down to end his turn.

Oceanus took her turn, gaining her Whirlwind Counter back along with receiving another one to come to five. She activated Spell Reproduction, discarding two Spells to bring back one, set a card face-down and then she activated Spiritual Wind Art – Miyabi, tributing her WIND Attribute Absurd Stealer to move one card on the field to the bottom of the owner's Deck. She eventually chose Goku Jr.'s Psychic Armor Head, which disappeared.

"Now I activate another ability!" Oceanus declared as two Whirlwind Counters disappeared. "By sacrificing three minus one Whirlwind Tokens, I can select an opponent and attack as many additional times with my Shadow Token as he has monsters on the field as long as I target that opponent alone. Now I attack Nuova Shenron's Fire Princesses, and then him directly! Air-shattering energy ball!"

"Reveal Trap: Backfire!" Nuova shouted. "Every time a FIRE monster is destroyed, you take 500 points of damage!"

"Reveal Spell of Pain! I redirect the 1500 points of damage I am due to take back at you!"

"Reveal Trap: Rainbow Life. I instead gain the damage as Life Points."

As a result of that action, Nuova's Life Points increased to 5500. During his turn, Goku Jr. summoned another Psychic Armor Head (0/500) and attacked again, also with Buster Pyle. Again, Oceanus used a Whirlwind counter to stop the Battle Phase and again the fist was deflected by a wind, this time the deflection accompanied by Oceanus laughing. Goku Jr. set a card face-down and ended his turn.

Nuova could see a strategy at work. After collecting his 500 Life Points to come to 6000, he used Soul Charge to get back his three Fire Princesses at the cost of 1500 Life Points (4500), equipped one with Power Pickaxe and placed a card face-down. He then used the ability of the Pickaxe to remove the Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds in Oceanus' graveyard from play to give the equipped monster 500 Attack points. With a total of 1800 Attack, the Fire Princess almost attacked Oceanus' Shadow Token, but she reminded Nuova of Soul Charge's drawback, stopping the monsters summoned by it from attacking for the turn. The Princess's attack returned to normal.

Oceanus, after using three out of five of her Whirlwind Counters, gained two back and gained one. She set a card.

"Now I activate another ability of my Shadow Token. By using five minus one Whirlwind counters, I can target one of your monsters and destroy all equip cards equipped to that monster. What's more, you take damage equal to the Attack of the monster I targeted!" she spoke, chuckling as she put her pinky and index fingers together.

"So that means…" Nuova responded.

"Yes. I target the Fire Princess with the Power Pickaxe. Mighty Hurricane Fury!"

She opened her arms, and a gust of wind shot out from her. It impacted the Fire Princess, shredding the Equip spell, and forcefully impacting Nuova with many cuts, taking his Life Points down to 3200. She then placed three cards face-down and activated Emergency Provisions, destroying them so she could get 1000 Life Points for each one and have a grand total of 5000.

Goku Jr. took his turn by placing a card face-down and activating his own Emergency Provisions, destroying two out of his three set cards and gaining 1000 Life Points per card (2000). That was when Nuova triggered Life Exchange, transferring the effect to his own Life Points, bringing them up to 5200. Another effect that activated was the card, since Nuova's Life Points were higher than his opponent, dealing 1000 damage to her. A further 1500 damage was incurred due to the Fire Princess' ability, leaving Oceanus at 2500.

Nuova took his turn by collecting 500 points due to Solemn Wishes, dealing 1500 damage to Oceanus by way of the Fire Princesses and summoning a card recently acquired: Dragunity Militum (1700/1200) He attacked, but Oceanus activated Rescuer from the Grave, removing 5 cards to negate the attack and end the Battle Phase. That was when Goku Jr. realized something

Oceanus drew, gained two counters back along with a fresh Whirlwind counter to come to 4, and knowing in one turn she would be forced to throw out her hand due to Card of Demise, decided to get more serious. She sacrificed four minus one (three) Whirlwind Counters, forcing one player to completely lose their turn as many times as she was willing to not get half of the spent Counters back. She chose Nuova Shenron, shouting "Whirlwind Spin!" and generating a tornado that forced Nuova onto the ground, leaving him unable to move at all due to the severe air pressure.

Goku Jr. played three cards. The first was the Continuous Spell Card **Armor reserves**, allowing him to use his Spell card zone as an extended monster card zone for armor monsters only. As a result, he moved his Psychic Armor Head and Active Guard there, also completely forbidding them from attacking. The second was Full Armor Gravitation, allowing him to draw up to 10 cards and Special Summon any Armor Monsters. He drew Burning Knuckle (0/1000), Buster Knuckle (0/0), and Black Hole Shield (0/0), the last of which emerged in the back row. As a result, the Burning Knuckle and Buster Knuckle gained 200 points for each Armor Monster, making their Attack Points go to 1600.

"Now I attack your Shadow Token with Burning Knuckle!" Goku Jr. announced, leaping towards her.

"Heh, pointless!" Oceanus scoffed. "I sacrifice two minus one counters to end your attack-"

"Reveal Trap Card: DNA Surgery. I declare 'Winged Beast'. All monsters are now Winged Beast types!"

"WHAT! No! Deflect! Deflect! Deflect!" the Dragon shouted as he appeared above her. Goku Jr. dove from above her and put lots of force into the punch. There was an explosion, but afterwards, the Dragon was still standing in the Shadow Token form.

"How could you have survived that?"

"I see you figured out the one weakness I have…" Oceanus replied in the male voice. "When I try to stop the attacks of Winged Beasts, I cannot. But I activated my face-down Attack Invulnerability to negate the destruction of the Shadow Token. So I just took 100 damage!"

"But you have had to sacrifice all your Whirlwind counters since the Token was successfully attacked…" Nuova chimed in, now able to stand. "…which is why you have reverted back to your true form. What's more, due to your Counters reaching the stage of zero minus one, maintenance of all your Shadow Token's abilities have stopped. As a result you are no longer maintaining Whirlwind Spin, and you know what that means? I can take my turn! I draw and gain 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes. You in turn take 1500 damage due to my Princesses, taking off the last 900 of your health!"

Oceanus immediately burst into flames, screaming as she dissolved in her Winged Beast form and leaving behind Mina a few minutes later, with the cleansed Six-Star Dragon Ball by her chin. Nuova asked Goku Jr. to attend to the Dragon Ball in the usual manner, and after the latter flew off, the former let Toby reassume control.

"Toby…" Pan began. "...did you just fight a Shadow Dragon?"

"Yes, Pan. Well… to be fair, it was Nuova who did most of the fighting." Toby sheepishly responded

"Haha, I fought them when I was your age, when they were first unleashed on the world."

"Seriously? I was told that was over a hundred years ago!"

"Well, to be fair, Grandpa was also aiding me. Actually, Giru and I were more aiding him."

"That's amazing!"

"So, which Dragons have you dealt with so far?"

"Well, we have dealt with the Two-Star, Seven-Star, Five-Star and, as of now, the Six-Star Dragons."

"What will happen after you deal with the remaining two dragons?"

"I… I don't know actually. Sooner or later I will have to return to my sister, I just don't know where she is or what has happened with her. In case you are wondering, her name is Misty Tredwell."

"I heard she was at New Domino City, I think, but I've heard rumors about her."

"What type of rumors?"

"I can't remember… but I think for now let us relax a bit."

"You're right, I could really use some time in the sun," Toby sighed, laying down on a beach towel that Pan had brought with her. A short while into their break, Mina awoke, wondering what happened. Pan filled her in on the details, and she was apparently shocked at how she became a monster that could have potentially destroyed the whole universe. However, remembering the real reason she was there, Mina again relayed to Toby that Rex Goodwin wanted to see him, but upon request, she revealed that it was due to his 'work'.

"What of it?" Toby asked.

"Go with her I think," Pan interjected.

"Why?"

"You've already hunted down and destroyed four Shadow Dragons. A little breather wouldn't hurt."

"Pan, the tournament _was_ my breather."

"At the very least, see exactly what this Mr. Goodwin wants."

"Fine, I'll go, but just to get these people off my back."

"Thank you," Mina began. "I've got a helicopter that can take us back to New Domino City. Is there anyone you'd like to bring?"

Toby chose Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr., Puck and Pan to come with, seeing that they were the closest thing he had to a family at this stage. On the way to the helicopter, they were met with a crowd of cheering children who wanted the autograph of the one who defeated 'Zarbon the Beautiful'. Toby found it a bit ironic: due to him defeating a childhood tormentor, his fame was growing, and would probably match the fame of his sister soon at that rate. By the time they were finished dealing with the throng, the sun was setting. Goku Jr. arrived back at about that time.

"Oh yes, there was one other thing:" Mina said after a while.

"What's that?" Pan asked.

"Well, due to the Fortune Cup Final incident, one battle was missed, but certain people still want to see it."

"What battle? I thought that tournament was over when that young Yusei boy beat Jack Atlas."

"Technically, it was, but amid all the chaos that resulted, we forgot the 'battle for the bronze'."

"Wait, wouldn't I get the bronze for that?" Toby interjected. "I mean, Yusei won, Jack, the defending champion, lost his title, so that would put him up for the Silver, while I failed at the finals, netting me the Bronze."

"Well, Jack didn't technically participate in the tournament, so that puts you at second place in the ladder. Now the people want to see who gets third place, and that means a face-off between the two semi-finalists."

"Wait a second, so that means Goku…"

"…needs to fight Akiza, yes."

"Are you sure 'fight' is the correct word here?"

"I don't see anything wrong with that terminology."

"We just came out of the Junior Division of the World Martial Arts Tournament."

"Oh, that reminds me, congratulations on winning the Junior Division."

"Thanks, although I wish they'd have let me fight in the Adults division. I think I'm strong enough to be the actual World Champion."

"Hey, Mysterious Stranger!" roared a voice behind them, turning out to be the announcer. "I need to talk to you."

"What is it?" Toby wondered.

"The people have been getting impatient. There was to be an exhibition match between you and the champion. We have just completed the Adults division (with Tien Shinhan Jr. retaining his title as World Champion) and the people are getting restless. They want to see the exhibition match."

"Damn it, I totally forgot about that. I'll be right back, Pan, Mina."

However, everyone there insisted on accompanying him and watching the exhibition match. During the match itself, Toby was, to some extent, enjoying dodging the Champion's attacks and testing him, and while he could see why this person was the champion, he didn't think that he was as strong as the fighters from over a hundred years ago. After all, Toby had essentially been trained by the Four-Star Shadow Dragon, supposedly one of the best fighters of the seven, and therefore, he had lots of knowledge on how to fight.

Eventually, Toby started going on the offense, but took it slow at first to see how the champion would hold up. After seeing he put up a good defense against his attacks, he increased the intensity a bit. Soon into the assault, his opponent put his thumbs and middle fingers together, making his hands form a triangle. "Tri-Beam!" he shouted, and a blast of energy burst forth from the triangle, immediately hitting Toby in the chest. The attack scorched the trench coat he was wearing as part of his Mysterious Stranger alter ego outfit and winded him a bit, but otherwise he escaped relatively unharmed.

"Okay, that's it!" Toby shouted after being shot with the Tri-Beam. He decided to test his full potential against Tien Shinhan Jr., and disappeared, reappearing behind him instantly. The champion was now struggling to keep up with Toby at all, due to him being so fast, and kept getting continually beaten around. After a while, in which he did manage to pull off a few counter-blows, the champion was knocked out of the ring. Toby was declared the winner of the exhibition match but, since it was not an official tournament fight, was not declared World Champion.

Toby still had a fun time at the Tournament, and was ready to attend to whatever problem Rex Goodwin had regarding him. Then there was also the upcoming third place battle between Goku Jr. and Akiza, so there was a lot to look forward to. All six of them walked to and boarded the helicopter which Mina came in and departed for New Domino City.


	10. Chapter 10: The Black Rose Dragon

Chapter 10: The Black Rose Dragon

After arriving in New Domino City the next day, the group of five was staying at a hotel near the Fortune Cup Stadium. Toby was trying to concentrate on finding any potential Shadow Dragon Bearers, yet there were none in the immediate vicinity. Goku Jr. was preparing his Deck for his fight against Akiza, while Vegeta Jr. and Puck were passing the time with Duels. Pan eventually started conversing with Toby about his life, and was shocked to learn that, technically, he was dead, just revived by the Shadow Dragon.

Another surprising revelation was that some of the things he had told Pan (concerning his life before death) he could never bring himself to tell his own sister. He and Misty even had a fight about this secrecy once in the past: at the time he was struggling at Duel Academy and bullies like Zarbon were further exacerbating his bad marks. The fact that most of the time his sister was away posing wasn't helping either. He had tried a few times before in his past, but almost every time he tried to enlist her help in something he BADLY needed help with, she was busy with something she could not be distracted from. This was either due to the nature or the location of her work, so instead he found himself dependant on the kindness of strangers.

One night was when things erupted. Misty came home from a modeling job and was looking forward to seeing Toby's academic report card. When she did, however, she was furious, claiming that she thought she could trust him not to shirk from his studies while she was gone, but apparently she was wrong. Toby tried to explain what he himself was going through, about being bullied frequently, and that it was difficult for the brain to absorb information after it was repeatedly bashed into a wall. He also retaliated against her claims that she would then have to come home, lose her job and have the family become destitute as a result by saying that maybe if she does come back at least she will be able to help her little brother for however long he has to stay in the pits of hell.

Things escalated even further, ending with Toby running away, taking his Deck with. He didn't have to go back to the Academy in the following days, so he stayed hidden, wanting to see neither hide nor hair of his sister. This persisted until Misty called Sector Security to look for him a few days later. Once he was found, she apologized, having since found out why her brother's marks were so terrible, and asked him to confide in her more often. Toby realized that he had never told anybody about this, and asked Pan, who was the only one listening at the time, to keep it a secret. Pan just remarked that it was very sad when you couldn't trust your own flesh and blood, and also noted that in the past year, he seemed to be comfortable with entrusting his problems to their little group. Yes, he was training most of the time, but during the occasional visits to his training area, he got a chance to get to know his new family better and vice versa.

Mina arrived in the afternoon and took Pan, Toby, Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr. and Puck to the Fortune Cup arena, where Akiza, Sayer and a few bodyguards were waiting.

"Ah, the infamous Mysterious Stranger," Sayer began.

"What do _you_ want?" Toby asked venomously.

"Like I was saying before, we hold your powers in high esteem, unlike those people there-"

"Let's just get the Duel underway! I'll deal with you later."

The Duel began, with Goku Jr. going first. He summoned Psychic Armor Head (0/500) and sacrificing it to summon Double Cloth Armor (0/0) in Defense mode, the armor attaching to his physical body. Akiza summoned Witch of the Black Rose (1700/1200) and activated its ability. She drew a card and revealed it on the condition that it and her witch be destroyed if it wasn't a monster. She revealed Rose Fairy (600/1200) and summoned it due to its ability. Her next move was to tune them to Synchro Summon her Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800)

"Now to deal with that armor of yours!" Akiza spoke.

"I take it you are going to use your ability, switch it into Attack mode, reduce its Attack by nothing to nothing and deal me 2400 points of damage?" Goku Jr. responded.

"Not quite. I know its ability! If I do that, it'll destroy itself and I'd take half of my Dragon's attack points as damage! Instead, I activate its _other_ ability!"

"You mean…"

"When Black Rose Dragon is successfully Synchro Summoned, it can destroy all cards on the field, including Double Cloth Armor. Go, Black Rose Gale!"

The resulting wind blew everything away from the Dragon, and Goku Jr.'s armor disintegrated. By the end of it, the field was clear. Goku Jr. then returned Psychic Armor Head to his field using its ability. The next move was the card Full Armor Gravitation, allowing him to reveal up to the top ten cards in his Deck and Special Summon any Armor monsters revealed this way, sending the rest of the cards to the Graveyard. He revealed all ten cards, discarding six. As a result, he Special Summoned Buster Knuckle (0/0), Burning Knuckle (0/1000), Over Boost (0/1000) and Active Guard (0/2500). All of these armor pieces, including Psychic Armor Head, attached to Goku Jr. himself, giving him a metallic blue appearance. One card was set face-down, and he attacked with the now 1000 point Buster Knuckle, punching Akiza right in the stomach, winding her and knocking her back.

"I'm sorry, but there's more!" he shouted. "Normally, I can only attack with one Armor monster per turn. However, I activate Mischief of the Time Goddess. Now I can skip one turn and have it go to the Battle Phase of the next turn! Now I attack you directly with Burning Knuckle!"

Akiza took another punch to the stomach, and got knocked back further, her Life Points on 2000.

"Want to play rough, eh, boy?" she asked maliciously, gasping for air at the same time. "Fine then, have it your way!" Upon saying this, she ripped a hair pin out of her hair, and a continuous gust of wind burst from her, causing everyone to shield their eyes. In response to this, Goku Jr. turned into a Super Saiyan, and although his golden hair couldn't be seen under Psychic Armor Head, the golden aura emanating from him was enough proof that the transformation had occurred.

When Akiza took her turn, she played Twilight Rose Knight (1000/1000) and used its ability to Special Summon a level 4 or lower Plant-type monster from her hand, choosing Lord Poison (1500/1000). Afterwards, she used Shining Rebirth to tune her monsters and summon a Synchro monster in her Graveyard, choosing Black Rose Dragon. Thirdly, she activated its effect of destroying all cards on the field, with the Dragon protected by Shining Rebirth, to clear the field of Goku Jr.'s armor and reveal his golden Super Saiyan hair and turquoise eyes. Then she summoned Phoenixian Seed (800/0) and tributed it to summon Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis (2200/0). She attacked the defenseless Goku Jr. with it, bringing him down to 1800 Life Points. It destroyed itself afterwards and inflicted a further 800 damage to him, leaving him at 1000. Her next move was to attack him directly with Black Rose Dragon.

"Goku, it's not like you to be so defenseless!" Toby shouted.

"But there's n- wait, I can still win this!" Goku responded.

"How? You're defenseless!" Akiza chimed in.

"I activate Rescuer from the Grave from my Graveyard! Now I remove from play five other cards in my Graveyard to end the Battle Phase, so your Dragon doesn't touch me!"

"I've still dealt with that pesky Armor of yours!"

"Or have you?"

Akiza set a card face-down and ended her turn.

Goku Jr. could still feel burns from that fierce attack when he began his turn, and the attack was of such force that, had he not gone Super Saiyan, he would have suffered much more punishment. He brought back his Psychic Armor Head and played Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two from his hand. The three cards he got were exactly what he needed to win the Duel, so he happily discarded the two cards he needed to discard to execute his plan. That was when he activated Phoenix Gravitation, summoning Armor from his Graveyard, including Big Bang Blow (0/0) Trap Buster (0/0) Over Boost (0/1000) and Active Guard (0/2500).

"But how? You banished those cards when you activated Rescuer from the Grave!" Akiza shouted.

"No I didn't," Goku Jr. responded. "The armor stayed in the game."

"Then how did you activate that effect? You only had Armor in your Graveyard!"

"Remember I discarded six cards when I played Full Armor Gravitation? Well, one of them was Rescuer from the Grave, and the other five were the ones removed from play, not my Armor monsters! As for my new arms, they were discarded via Graceful Charity just now."

Goku Jr. attacked Black Rose Dragon with Big Bang Blow, lunging forward with his right fist ready to strike.

"Activate Trap Card: Rose Blizzard!" Akiza shouted as a cloud of rose petals along with a strong wind blasted towards the charging child. "Now Big Bang Blow's attack is negated and it is switched into Defense mode! I know how your card works, kid, and I know its weakness!"

"So you'd like to think! I activate the ability of Trap Buster!" Goku Jr. responded, and used his left fist to impact the wind, creating a shockwave that burst from the arena. "Trap Buster stops the effects of all Traps targeting my Armor monsters, and since Rose Blizzard was a Trap with Big Bang Blow, an Armor monster, as its target, that trap is destroyed!"

The right fist which held Big Bang Blow impacted Black Rose Dragon and disintegrated, but then the special ability activated, destroying all monsters and delivering damage equal to the combined monsters Attack points to both players. Goku Jr. activated Active Guard to negate the effect damage, while Akiza was left powerless to stop the 4600 points of damage dealt to her.

"Well, that was a close one," Pan stated, as Akiza replaced the hair pin in her hair and her powers returned to normal.

"Now that that's over, I would like to offer you a place with us," Sayer interjected, holding out a hand to Toby.

"You just cannot take a hint, can you?"

"But you will be with others like yourself."

"You have ten seconds to shut up, drop it and beat it."

"I'm serious. A talent at Psychic Dueling as great as yours would be most welcome in the Arcadia movement!"

"Five."

"Your talent might even rival that of Akiza!"

"Three!"

"How about this: Duel me! If I win, you join us."

"Interesting challenge. However, I don't feel like dueling. My counter-offer is this: Duel Vegeta and win, and I'll let you walk away without any more harm done."

"Why that powerless brat?"

"Who are you calling powerless!" Vegeta Jr. yelled, activating his Duel Disk.

"Fine, I suppose I can entertain myself with some worthless dreg," Sayer sighed, activating his Duel Disk. "Entertain me as much as you can"

The young Vegeta Jr. responded by saying that was _his_ line, word for word, and opted to go first. He ended his turn with two face-down cards.

"If I know Vegeta as well as I think I do…" Goku Jr. began, "… I'd say he's going for a one-turn kill."

Sayer, overhearing this, decided to bear that in mind. He drew, and played Psi Station. Then he summoned Psychic Snail and activated Psi Station's effect, paying 500 Life Points (taking himself down to 3500) to increase the Snail's attack by 300 and it's Level from 4 to 5. His third move was to use the Spell Card Emergency Teleport to Special Summon the Level 3 Psychic Commander (1400/800). He tuned the Level 3 Psychic Commander to the Level 5 Psychic Snail to Synchro Summon Thought Ruler Archfiend (2700/2300) in Attack mode. Sayer declared a direct attack, but Vegeta Jr. just started laughing.

"What is so funny?" he asked

"How pitiful!" Vegeta Jr. declared.

"You are taking 2700 points of damage in addition to real physical harm and you laugh at _me_?"

"Yes. You would attack the descendant of the Prince of All Saiyans? You should mind your manners, or else they will be your downfall!"

"It is you who needs a lesson in manners, brat!"

"Activate Trap Card: Imperial Manners! As long as I don't have any monsters, I can use this card to destroy all Attack mode monsters you control when you attack!"

Thought Ruler Archfiend was immediately destroyed. Vegeta began his turn grinning. He played Queen's Knight (1500/1600), followed by Double Summon. As a result, he could summon King's Knight (1600/1400). The special ability of King's Knight, since Queen's Knight was out, allowed the Special Summoning of Jack's Knight (1900/1000) from Vegeta Jr.'s deck. Seeing Sayer with no monsters or set cards, he attacked with Jack's Knight, bringing his opponent down to 1600 Life Points, which were destroyed by an attack from King's Knight.

"He's all yours!" the victorious Saiyan descendant announced to Toby. He immediately reappeared behind Sayer and kicked him across the stadium, leaving him lying on his front. A foot gently touched down on Sayer's back afterwards. The same burning rage Toby felt when facing Zarbon resurfaced, and just like before, he channeled Nuova's power to raise his body temperature as he did before. Sayer's clothes burned away, and he found himself screaming in pain from the intense heat.

"Enough!" Akiza screamed. "Stop this, please!"

"Sorry, that is not going to happen," was Toby's response. Although he didn't enjoy making her suffer like this, years of pent-up anger was clouding his judgment. Anger directed not only towards Sayer, but to everyone else like him.

"Why are you doing this?"

"He has got to suffer… for _that!_"

"Let him go."

"Sure, okay."

"Really?"

"Pfft, yeah right!"

"You will let him go!" Akiza shouted, her hair pin falling out. Her face was now hidden behind several long bangs, and her power level had skyrocketed. She lunged towards Toby, intending to force him to release Sayer, but he just caught her by her hands. After that, the two Psychic Duelists grappled and pushed against each other, both power levels soaring: his emitting a blue aura as he struggled, hers emitting a red aura. Toby was only just able to stay even with Akiza, but because he had lost his concentration on keeping Sayer pinned and burning, he released his hold in favor of firmer ground, leaving the Arcadia Movement leader ample opportunity to escape.

"There, I let him go!" Toby said, after noticing that Sayer had retreated halfway to where he originally was. Just as he returned to his old position, there was an explosion of energy, and both Toby and Akiza were seen flying backwards, although the former was able to regain his footing rather quickly, while the latter skidded across the stadium floor on her back.

"Vegeta, what does the scouter say about her power level?" Toby asked.

"It's… it's over nine thousand!" Vegeta Jr. responded in surprise, the red glass eyepiece of the device showing the corresponding numbers.

"What? Nine thousand? Oh well, I did admire her talents in that area."

"Haven't you got a higher power level than her?"

"Psychic power level, I'm not too sure, but I think we're done here."

"What about Sayer?"

"My vengeance can wait a bit. Besides, I think I've given him enough punishment for one day. I've left enough of a footprint on his back."

"That still leaves his maid or whatever she is."

"You mean Akiza? I also think I've caused her enough trouble for now. Besides, the battle is over, we have no more reason to stay."

"I guess you're right."

With that, Toby's group left the stadium, but instead of going back to the hotel, they traveled to Rex Goodwin on Mina's insistence. Once at the man's home, he began interrogating Toby as to what exactly was happening. Rex showed surveillance camera footage of the attack on Haze Shenron from the Facility, the emergence of Naturon Shenron in the hospital and the subsequent transformation into the Black Rose Dragon-ish form and finally footage captured on one camera that showed the gigantic Rage Shenron.

"Now what is going on?" Rex asked after showing the footage.

"Fine, I guess I can tell you, since you have got footage of three of those Dragons," Toby sighed, knowing he was busted. "In short, if I don't hunt those beasts down and destroy them, this world will face destruction."

"Why?"

"A hundred years ago, these Shadow Dragons, born from negative energy inside certain… artifacts… nearly destroyed the entire galaxy. Suffice to say they will do so again if they aren't stopped now."

"Hmm… that could be… problematic."

Suddenly, there was an eruption of purple flame elsewhere in the city, but it could still be seen from the building they were in. Goodwin's assistant started panicking, and Toby's party was dismissed until a later date. Toby, sensing something was off, told Pan and the others to wait at the hotel. Meanwhile, he flew towards the flames, and was quite surprised at their location: the Arcadia Movement. Ascending so that he wouldn't be caught in them, he was even more surprised to find that the flames formed some sort of bird-like creature. More flames soon sprung up, causing Toby to wonder exactly what was going on. He descended towards the Arcadia Movement building, and noticed one of the top windows broken. Flying towards that window, he saw Sayer dueling someone dressed in black and orange.

He could also sense two all too familiar power levels further inside the building, but he had no time to dwell on this as a strange device appeared in the sky. People inside the flaming areas transformed into purple orbs and flew into the device, after which it opened up to reveal a giant black lizard with green stripes. Another monster appeared soon after, this one also being a large black creature, but this one looked similar to some sort of bird, and it had orange stripes. Toby could feel something trying to seemingly pull him out of his body, but he somehow managed to resist by taking on Nuova's form.

The monsters didn't seem to stay for long. After the orange-striped bird pecked at the building, both creatures sank into a dark substance and the flames vanished, leaving Toby to wonder what exactly was happening. Nuova told him that he could feel a strong, evil presence in the creatures, but was unable to tell what exactly they were. Left with no clues, they were forced to return to Pan and the others.

* * *

><p><strong>En<strong>**d**** note:** I forgot to mention this earlier, but to me, considering Goku Jr. was a fighter, an Armor Deck seemed perfect for him. Besides, the Armor monsters from Yugioh were just too interesting a concept to be abandoned.


	11. Chapter 11: The Psychic Duelist

Chapter 11: The Psychic Duelist

Toby heard that a girl had been found in the Arcadia Movement building after the attack and was taken to a hospital. Wanting to confirm a hunch he had about this girl, he, Pan, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. traveled to the hospital to which this girl was taken. It turned out he was right, the girl was Akiza, and by the time Toby's party had arrived, there were already visitors, two of them being her parents.

Toby was also noticed by the teal-haired twins Leo and Luna, both of whom asked why he was there and were subsequently surprised to learn that he was worried about Akiza. When asked why, he just told them that he once looked up to her and still holds some admiration of her today. Akiza's parents left, later returning with Yusei Fudo accompanying them.

Strangely, after Yusei touched the unconscious Akiza, she awoke. However, upon doing so, she turned hostile and activated her Duel Disk, creating a fierce gale in the process that blew everything backwards. Next, a fireball headed for Toby, who took the hit with little difficulty (he had recently taken a Tri-Beam attack to the chest, and as a result, the fireball seemed barely worth registering). Yusei activated his Duel Disk and stepped forward to duel her, even though she had just claimed that the first one she'd do away with was the 'masked boy' that willed harm on Sayer while he was alive.

Toby, upon seeing Yusei step forward, struck a deal with Akiza: he'd Duel her after she concludes the current Duel. Although he didn't mention this, he had a Deck to try out: his old Duel Academy Deck. As the Duel intensified, Akiza's father, against everyone's advice, stood between her and her opponent, taking the damage she was dishing out due to her powers. He insisted that nobody stand in his way, he needed to reach his daughter. After a while, things were getting chaotic as Akiza's powers were running rampant, but then something surprising to Toby happened: she managed to grasp some control of her powers.

Yusei promptly ended the Duel with a final attack, but by then his opponent's battle-damaged father fell to the ground. Toby, knowing Goku Jr. still had Senzu Beans left from the time of Naturon Shenron, took the bag, slid one bean into the father's mouth and told him to eat it, whereupon he instantly recovered after doing so.

"I still want that Duel with you," Akiza spoke, albeit in a much friendlier tone.

"Ah, why not? I've got a new deck to try anyway. Besides, I think I need to see how well you can control your powers," Toby responded.

Akiza opted to go first, using the same moves she did on Yusei: one Evil Thorn (100/300), which exploded and dealt 300 points of damage to Toby (3700) and summoned two more Evil Thorns. Toby took his turn and, surprisingly, only set two cards face-down. Upon his opponent's next turn, she summoned Twilight Rose Knight (1000/1000) and used its effect to Special Summon Dark Verger (0/1000) after which she tuned the two Level One, one Level Two and one Level Three monsters to Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800), just like in the previous Duel. One trap revealed itself at that point: Coffin Seller, inflicting 300 points of damage for every monster sent to the graveyard for a total of 1200, leaving her with 2800. The Dragon then attacked, but Toby triggered Negate Attack, stopping the attack.

Toby began his turn by placing a card face-down, playing the Magic Card Pot of Greed for two free cards, followed by Purity of the Cemetery, then the Magic Card Scapegoat, summoning four Sheep Tokens as a result. Then he used Token Thanksgiving, destroying the Tokens and giving him 800 Life Points for each one, for a total gain of 2400, taking him up to 6100. His next move was to activate Card Destruction, making both him and Akiza discard cards and then draw the same number of cards discarded. He lost his Obedience and drew one, while she lost and drew four, also losing 600 points due to Coffin Seller (2200). After that came the Magic Card Nibelung's Treasure, activating Nibelung's ring from his Deck and equipping it to Akiza's Black Rose Dragon. Nibelung's Treasure also allowed him to draw five cards.

Akiza took her turn, but the effect of Nibelung's ring activated: although she could draw two cards instead of one, one of the cards she drew was a monster, Lord Poison, which was promptly discarded, inflicting 300 points of damage due to Coffin Seller (1900). Purity of the Cemetery activated: since she had three Evil Thorns, one Dark Verger, one Twilight Rose Knight, one Rose Tentacles, one Lord Poison and one Hedge Guard in her Graveyard, she took 800 points of damage (1100). Once that resolved, she placed a card face-down and tried to attack with Black Rose Dragon. Toby pointed out that, due to Nibelung's Ring equipped to the Dragon, it couldn't attack. Unable to do anything else, she ended her turn, hoping that her face-down could save her.

Toby drew, and set another card face-down. Akiza, due to Nibelung's Ring, had to draw two cards. She drew Wicked Rebirth and Closed Plant Gate, neither of which were monsters, thus allowing her to keep both cards. However, Purity of the Cemetery still activated, dealing 800 damage to her to bring her to 300 Life Points. It was then that Toby revealed a trap card known as Cemetery Bomb, which dealt 100 damage to Akiza for every card in her Graveyard, removing her remaining Life Points.

"Hah, let that be a lesson," Vegeta Jr. began. "Just because your name rhymes with 'Frieza' doesn't mean you too can take over the world!"

"Vegeta, you should have said that one duel ago!" Toby yelled in frustration.

"One thing," Akiza began, "Why is your left hand bandaged?"

"Long story. Sufficed to say I don't want to go into it right now."

"Why not?"

"Well, for one thing I won the Junior Division of the World Martial Arts Tournament and am well overdue for treating myself to a large celebratory cake,"

"You won the World Martial Arts Tournament?!" an awed Leo spoke.

"Even beat the World Champion. Sadly it was only an exhibition match."

"Wow. Between you and that Dragon-"

"Okay, that will be enough out of you."

"Ummm… how much food will there be?"

"Lots. I need to see exactly how bottomless the stomachs of my two best friends are."

"Yeah, they kinda remind be of Grandpa," Pan spoke up. "He'd always put away enough food to deplete at least two restaurants of stock."

Just then, Mina entered the room, and took them all to another part of the building. She got out a computer and inserted a disk that she claimed was from the destroyed Arcadia Movement. Seeing the footage began angering Toby: part of it was children being subjected to the same torture he was unable to endure, and children being forced to demonstrate Psychic powers. His body temperature, due to Nuova's abilities, started rising after hearing that many of these children had been abducted.

The hardest blow of all came when Toby heard another revelation: those with sufficiently developed powers were to be used as soldiers. He managed to get a good enough look at a list shown to Akiza, and was further horrified to learn that she was but one of many. By that time, the floor underneath him was almost molten, so he lifted into the air a little bit. Akiza promptly left the room, with Toby leaving a minute later. Instead of following her, he left the building through one of the windows, flying to a point just above the roof. He was soon joined by Pan.

"What happened, Toby?" she asked worriedly.

"I was _far_ too soft on Sayer. He deserved so much more than receiving the same mark as Zarbon!"

"Were you one of the children kidnapped by Arcadia?"

"No. I joined willingly. However, those tests are how I died, and I think it's correct to assume that I wasn't the only one. Sayer has a sea of blood on his hands!"

"Are you sure?"

"I failed to meet their expectations of my powers, and paid the ultimate price."

"But you managed to circumvent that price!"

"Yes, and since that day, I trained my powers. Days, eventually weeks, I kept projecting my Plasma Eels, my babies, into the world. Eventually, my powers got to a point where my monsters, spells and traps stayed materialized much longer and had a much stronger effect, and I knew that I became a strong Psychic Duelist."

"Those powers aren't the only thing you have gained from this."

"I suppose that is true. I have not only also gotten superior fighting skills, but I have also gotten friends. For the first time in my life, I made friends that I was able to keep over a long period of time."

Toby then tearfully revealed that his social life had just involved him and his sister. By nature, he was shy, and struggled to make friends. Out of his attempts at making friends, he only had one or two successes. When he was younger, people tried to use him to get Misty's autograph. He hated being in the shadow of his older sister for the sole reason that nobody paid the real him any attention. People like Zarbon didn't see it that way, though. On reflection, Toby realized that, considering his narcissistic nature, it should have been no surprise that Zarbon chose him as his regular punching bag. After all, Misty was drawing all the attention away from his _oh so beautiful_ self through her younger brother. Despite his feelings of being left in Misty's shadow, the two of them continued to have a strong relationship, if somewhat rocky at times.

There was one Duel a little later on in Toby's life, about a year and a half before his death, which changed everything. He and another student were having a disagreement: she wanted him to ask Misty about fashion tips and bring the answer back to her, and he didn't want to, having since grown fed up with being the middleman. The girl was on 1500 Life Points, and activated Emergency Provisions to destroy a Spell or Trap card and gain 1000 Life Points. As she did so, she ordered him upon the conclusion of the Duel to do as she wanted. That was when he snapped. He revealed two of his own face-downs at that point. Anger burned inside him as he revealed Bad Reaction to Simochi, taking off 1000 Life Points instead. As this happened, she clapped her hands to her mouth, struggling to keep it closed. The second was Cemetery Bomb, removing the last 500 Life Points due to it dealing 100 points of damage for each creature in her Graveyard, which came up to five exactly.

After that, she threw up and was taken to lie down somewhere, leaving Toby with a strange feeling inside him. He just knew that, somehow, he was able to project the force of his one Trap into the real world, but the only person he let know of his discovery was Misty. Things evolved from there: he heard about Akiza's incident (even though it had already happened about a year before then, but he was absent at the time), he found out about the Arcadia movement being a haven for people like him, he approached her and expressed his desire to be just like her, he received a somewhat cold response directing him to listen to Sayer before she walked away, he was taken for testing, and then he died. The intensity of Toby's tears had heavily increased by that point.

But now, with him being reincarnated, he found people who were interested in him as a real friend, not a bridge to his sister. Toby had gotten to care for Pan, Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr., Nuova Shenron and even Puck, and saw them more as a family. In addition to fulfilling his mission of hunting down the other Shadow Dragon Bearers, he really wanted to unite the two spheres of his life and introduce Pan and the others to Misty.

Pan promised that, no matter what happens, she will always be there for Toby. Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. were also there by that point, the former telling Toby that he was really glad to have known him as he is an amazing person and excellent duelist. The latter said that Toby is very strong and deserves to forge his own destiny, also mentioning that he was proud to be the friend of one so powerful.

Toby, touched by their feelings, removed his large blue hat and engaged with the other three in a mid-air group hug. There were still two Shadow Dragon Bearers left, and while the time to strike would eventually come, for now all Toby's party could do was get as much enjoyment out of the calm before the storm as possible.


	12. Chapter 12: The Four Star Dragon

**Author's**** note**: A note that any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards. Also, I'm probably gonna be working quite a bit on this story in the coming months. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 12:<span> The Four-Star Dragon

The next day, at their hotel room in New Domino City, Toby was in a meditation, conversing with Nuova.

"I can't help but notice a pattern with these Dragons," he said

"Yes, it is exactly what you think: there is a pattern." Nuova responded.

"With their Decks?"

"Yes. You remember Haze Shenron using Dark Spirit Art – Greed, Naturon using Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane and Oceanus using Spiritual Wind Art – Miyabi. There was also Caius the Shadow Monarch, Granmarg the Rock Monarch and Rage's Zaborg the Thunder Monarch."

"So does that mean that some cards _weren't_ used?"

"Yes. I can tell that there are certain cards that each Shadow Dragon has. The cards you didn't see from Haze were Barrier Statue of the Abyss. Naturon we didn't see use the Barrier Statue of the Drought. Rage didn't use the Barrier Statue of the Heavens or the Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri. Oceanus, as far as I can tell, didn't use Raiza the Storm Monarch."

"So, there are certain cards whose type is unique to the Dragons?"

"Yes. The Barrier Statues, the Spiritual Arts and the Monarchs are all used by the Shadow Dragons."

"So there are just two dragons left?"

"I think so, but I also sense something else on your mind regarding the girl Akiza."

"Yes. Considering all the mess-ups with her, I don't think I'll ever get a chance to be friends with her."

"I am sure that day will come, Toby. Just remain positive."

"I'm trying, Nuova. Looking back now, I think I may have jeopardized my chances of even a friendship with the woman I looked up to. And just because I had an overwhelming hatred for her boss!"

"If you had tried to sweep that under the rug, it would have only been worse when you snapped, which would have led her to think you betrayed her as well."

"I guess you are right. I just cannot shake that feeling, though, that I might never be friends with her. I know I have got Goku and Vegeta, but I really want to try and properly befriend someone from my first lifetime."

"Trust me, that time will come. In the meanwhile, I suggest you let off some steam and relax. The battle only gets more difficult from here, so we need all the time to relax that we can get."

Vegeta Jr. came into the room at that point, looking agitated, with his Duel Disk at the ready. Toby wondered what was going on, but his friend paid him no mind, instead muttering that his triumph over the lowlife meant nothing. It was at that point that he turned around and demanded a Duel with Nuova Shenron.

Toby was confused, and asked if he wanted to Duel him, but Vegeta Jr. insisted that it be with the Shadow Dragon and its true Deck, because that will make for a challenge worthy of his ancestor. With a sigh, Toby agreed, and transformed into Nuova Shenron. Both Duel Disks activated.

Nuova went first, playing the Field Spell **Four-Star: Volcano Diver**. The scenery changed to show a portal opening in the sky, and from that portal, a dark, elongated dragon diving into a volcano, causing it to erupt. Nuova appeared in his red form as a FIRE Pyro-type Shadow Token with 2500 Attack and Defense points. He played Pot of Greed for two cards, and set two cards card to end his turn.

Vegeta Jr. took over at that point, placing four cards face-down.

Nuova drew, and a flame appeared in his Spell and Trap card zone, after which he played Graceful Charity, allowing the drawing of three cards at the cost of discarding two. He summoned Fire Princess (1300/1500) and played Soul Charge, paying 1000 Life Points to summon two more from his Graveyard. He then played Double Summon to allow for the summoning of The Thing in the Crater (1000/1200). He activated Card of Sanctity, allowing both players to draw until holding six cards. Altar for Tribute revealed itself and sacrificed The Thing in the Crater to regain 1000 Life Points. This allowed the sacrifice to activate its ability to summon a Pyro-type monster. Nuova chose Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch (2400/1000). Due to him regaining Life Points, the Fire Princesses were due to inflict 1500 damage total to Vegeta Jr., but he triggered the trap **Saiyan Battle Armor**, gaining one of the ancient models of battle armor used by the Saiyans ages ago. This halved all damage taken, causing him to lose 750 Life Points instead, to bring him down to 3250 and gaining the number '750' on it. Thestalos' ability activated, allowing Nuova to discard a random card from his opponent's hand. The card discarded just happened to be Jack's Knight, a Level 5 monster, which caused him to take 200 points of damage per monster level, culminating in 1000. However, this was also halved by Vegeta Jr.'s armor, while the number increased by 500 to 1250, cracking in the process.

He then activated Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai, destroying Thestalos, and inflicting 2400 points of damage to Vegeta Jr. This damage was halved to 1200, and the counter on the armor increased to 2450, while he was down to 1650. Nuova then revived Thestalos with Monster Reborn. His third action was to attack Vegeta Jr. directly with Thestalos, but Vegeta Jr. activated Imperial Manners to destroy all of his opponent's Attack position monsters since he controlled none. In response, Nuova activated Backfire to deal 500 points of damage for each FIRE monster destroyed, but Vegeta Jr. activated Royal Surrender. This negated Backfire's effect and destroyed it. After the chaos, only Nuova's Shadow Token remained, and he attacked with that. Vegeta Jr. triggered the Trap card Aura Armor, negating the attack and Special summoning a Player Token (?/?). As the Token, Vegeta Jr. stepped forward and gained a red and white suit of armor with wings, his Saiyan armor being worn over that. His Life Points were halved from 1650 to 825 per the card's activation requirements, and the Attack and Defense points of the card became equal to his Life Points.

"How did the Token survive Imperial Manners back there?" Vegeta Jr. asked.

"Shadow Tokens cannot be destroyed by card effects, only by battle." Nuova responded.

"Still, you are putting up a good fight. I like it!"

"It is good to see you are enjoying yourself. The Saiyan blood in you shines true."

"Yes, and with my new Armor, this Duel has become a true Battle!"

"Indeed. I play another Pot of Greed for two cards, and place three cards face-down to end my turn."

Vegeta Jr. took his turn, placed three cards face-down and activated Emergency Provisions, destroying those three cards to regain 3000 Life Points and boost his Armor's Attack Power by 3000 to 3825. He attacked Nuova's Shadow Token, but Nuova triggered Turn Jump, moving the Turn count forward by three, and gaining three flames in his Spell and Trap Card zone as a result. Two disappeared, and Nuova's Shadow Token lit up with a molten aura on his skin. Vegeta Jr.'s fist impacted, but caught on fire and he withdrew.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I used Turn Jump to increase my Flame Counters from one to four…" Nuova responded, "… and I sacrificed two of them to activate my Heat Armor ability. This negates an attack on the Shadow Token by a non-Pyro monster and deals half the damage to the attacking monster's controller."

Vegeta Jr., therefore, was due to take 1912 damage, but his **Saiyan Battle Armor** was still active, and absorbed 956 points of damage, the number on the armor increasing to 3406 (and the number of cracks vastly increasing), while his Life Points decreased to 2869 (along with his Player Token's attack).

Nuova took his turn and gained a Flame Counter. He played another Soul Charge, Special Summoning three Fire Princesses (1300/1500) and Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch (2400/1000). Altar for Tribute revealed itself, sacrificing Thestalos to regain the 2000 points lost and add another 400 Life Points, leaving Nuova at 4400. The three Fire Princesses activated their abilities to deal 1500 damage to Vegeta Jr., but only 750 damage got through, leaving him at 2119. The **Saiyan Battle Armor** absorbed the rest of the damage, but as soon as it hit 4000, it completely shattered.

"So, you finally figured out why my Armor had a numerical value," Vegeta Jr. spoke.

"I see now," Nuova began. "When your Armor absorbs 4000 points of damage, it breaks down."

Nuova then played Card of Demise, drawing until holding five cards in exchange for discarding his hand in five turns. Another The Thing in the Crater (1000/1200) was summoned. Strangely, Nuova attacked with it, and it was promptly destroyed by the Aura Armor and Nuova was on 3281. Another Backfire revealed itself at that point, dealing 500 damage to Vegeta Jr., bringing his Life Points and his Armor's Attack points to 1619. Due to the ability of The Thing in the Crater, a Barrier Statue of the Inferno (1000/1000) was summoned. Nuova then played Dark Hole to destroy all monsters on the field. Due to four FIRE monsters being destroyed on Nuova's side of the field, Vegeta Jr. took 2000 points of damage from Backfire, draining away his 1619 Life Points. His armor completely disintegrated, and the scenery returned to normal.

Nuova let Toby resume control, and Vegeta Jr. gave off a satisfied smirk. Having watched the Duel through Nuova's eyes, he could see why his friend was so happy: this felt like an actual Duel rather than a game of what the young Saiyan liked to call 'taking out the trash'.

Just then, Goku Jr. came in, saying that he found a Dragon ball. Toby, wary of what danger might be there, told him to show it to him. That was when he was presented with the Three-star Dragon ball. Goku Jr. asked if it should be taken to Mount Paozu, but Toby immediately said no. Instead, he snatched the Dragon ball from his friend and placed it in a pocket of his trenchcoat. However, just as he was about to put it out of his mind, something compelled him to look at the ball. There was something missing, and the answer was in that little orange ball.

Toby stared at the ball…

Goku Jr. wondered what was going on. Surely, finding the Dragon ball now was a good thing?

Toby continued to stare…

Vegeta Jr. was starting to get annoyed now. Why did he _have_ to space out now?

The young boy's gaze was still focused on the Dragon ball…

Pan entered the room, curious as to the sudden silence. She said hello to Toby.

The boy's gaze didn't divert from the artifact.

"Thank you, Goku," Toby said, after a while.

"For what?" the young boy asked, confounded.

"For reminding me what I have to do."

"How did I remind you?"

"This Dragon ball, it hasn't been cleansed. Aside from this, there is one other ball. Amidst our fun together, I forgot something very important."

"What did you forget?"

"The breaks between each Shadow Dragon fight have been brief, and the result of that swiftness of action has ensured that the lives of the Bearers have been saved."

"So we deserve a real break and not merely slight reprieves!"

"There is just one problem, Goku. If we are to stop the Dragons from taking over their hosts, we can only _afford_ slight reprieves!"

"So, what are you saying?"

"I am saying that it is time I go hunting!" Toby announced, stretching his muscles. There was a very good reason for this: the Three-Star Dragon was still very much alive "I am going to find the remaining Dragons and eliminate them."

"Hold on, can't we have just one more day?" Goku Jr. begged.

"As much as I hate to agree with him, using this day to rest is a much more practical option," Vegeta Jr. chimed in.

"I have had enough of a rest. I can't rest any more!" Toby defended.

"You sure can be a blockhead sometimes, Toby," Pan responded. "I learned the hard way when I was your age that these two Dragons are _nothing_ like the others. In terms of strength, you have just destroyed punching bags up until now."

"So, Grandma, are you saying that from here it gets much more difficult?" Goku Jr. asked worriedly.

"Yes, and Toby is really a moron if he thinks he can take them all by himself, even with Nuova on his side! Toby, stay here and rest, and tomorrow, we can fight the Dragons together when we are all well rested and ready for the fight."

"Okay," Toby sighed, knowing that she had a point. "…but at first light tomorrow, we leave! We have wasted too much time already."


	13. Chapter 13: The Earthbound Immortal

Chapter 13: The Earthbound Immortal

The next morning, Toby was up before the sun was. His friends were still asleep, so he decided to flip through and maybe modify his Deck for the upcoming battle. He had found an old card in his Duel Academy Deck. Back then, it was of no use, as the conditions of use made it very rarely activate, and even when it did, the effects were so trivial that he might have been better off using it somewhere else. But now, having been informed of the powers of the Shadow Dragons, he knew that this card could potentially be the difference between victory and defeat. After some time, he placed it in his Deck, and shuffled it.

Vegeta Jr. was the next to wake, and, like Toby, he flipped through his Deck. These cards, consisting of mostly Royal and Imperial-themed cards, had only been defeated twice. The first defeat was at the hands of Goku Jr.'s Armor monsters, and the second was at the hands of Nuova Shenron. Many of his wins, though, were one-turn kills, and although this proved that his Deck was not to be taken lightly, they actually seemed to depress him. If these people could not even stand up to something so trivial, they might as well have lost to a houseplant, so what does defeating them even prove? After the Duel with Nuova, however, he knew that he couldn't afford to take these Shadow Dragons lightly, so he thought heavily about possible modifications to his Deck.

Later in the morning, Goku Jr. came in sleepily. This soon changed, however, when he saw the food that was provided as breakfast, part of which Vegeta Jr. had already started eating. After that point, the food started disappearing at a faster rate. Toby and the others were also eating at that point, but Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. were the fastest consumers at the table.

After the meal (which ended near noon after the Saiyans had seven servings of food), Toby, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. prepared to leave. Pan wished them luck, and instructed that they come back to her when the hunt was through. The trio proceeded to take off into the air after promising the elderly woman that they would do so. Toby concentrated his energy into the Dragon Ball, and after it started to gently pull in one direction. Flying in the direction, they found themselves in Satellite by late afternoon. There was also a pull in another direction, but Toby decided to focus on the closer one. Goku Jr. however, spotted something mid-flight and the trio descended to investigate. What they found was the One-Star Dragon Ball, and Toby also decided to hold on to that for the time being.

By evening, the pull from Toby's Dragon Ball had taken the trio to an abandoned amusement park, where a giant black, green-striped lizard had emerged along with purple flames and a symbol in the sky, both looking like a lizard as well.

Toby saw from above that Akiza and Sayer were there, and Yusei was hanging off a building. At that point, the young Shadow Dragon Bearer bolted from the sky directly towards Sayer with a foot aimed forward. However, before Toby landed the hit, the giant black-green lizard had snared Sayer in its tongue and reeled him into its mouth, closing it shut just as Toby landed.

"Toby, I have avenged you…" spoke a familiar voice. Toby looked down to see Misty in a strange black, green striped garb, with a facial tattoo and some extremely freaky (according to him) sort of eye-shadow that turned the whites of her eyes black.

"What were you told of Toby Tredwell's death?" he shouted in the voice of Nuova Shenron, helping Yusei up.

"Well…" spoke Yusei, "…Sayer told us that he murdered him during experimentation to see if he had strong enough Psychic powers to join the Arcadia movement."

"I see…"

"Why does Toby interest you, stranger?"

"There is a continuation to that story. On that note, I think it is time to end this little masquerade."

The hat and trenchcoat were thrown off, revealing a young boy with uniquely styled dark brown hair. He immediately shouted in a child-like voice

"**I live once more!**"

Everyone was shocked by these words, especially Misty and Akiza. "Toby?" both of them questioned.

"It can't be. I didn't know when you told me you were a walking corpse that you had actually died!" Yusei told him. "But if you were killed by Sayer, how can you be alive?"

"Remember what else I said about 'being lucky' before we hunted Rage Shenron?"

"How does that have to do with you being alive?"

"Take a good look at this…" Toby commanded, after which he loosened the excessive amounts of bandages on his left hand. Once they were loose enough, he threw them off with a wave of the hand, revealing the cracked and darkish-blue Dragon ball with four black stars. "Well, I am one of the _unlucky_ ones."

"But you are alive! That in itself is extremely lucky!" Yusei retaliated.

"But if the spirit that brought me back to life is destroyed, so am I, unlike Leo, who managed to survive."

"Please, come here, Toby." Misty requested.

Toby did just that, easily avoiding the flames with flight, and landed right by his big sister. Her arms started to wrap around him and pulled him closer. As they did, the position of each hand continued to approach the elbow of the other arm, and Toby ended up pressed against his sister. As his head lay on her chest, she slowly began speaking. "I missed you, Toby."

"I missed you too, big sister. You have no idea how much I missed you!" Toby sobbed, returning the hug.

"At least we are back together now. That is what matters!"

"I agree."

"There is one last thing I need to do, Toby." Misty softly spoke. Her eyes turned white again, her facial tattoo disappeared, and she turned her attention to Akiza.

"Akiza…" she resumed

Akiza remained silent.

"I'm sorry. Forgive me. Toby didn't die because of you, and as you can see, he has come back to us."

Still silence.

"I no longer have any reason to fight. I surrender."

"You will do nothing of the sort!" a voice spoke. Toby could also hear this voice, and although it didn't belong to a Shadow Dragon, Nuova ordered him out of the area. In accordance with this, he reappeared in the sky above the battleground, next to Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr.

Misty could be seen screaming, and the trio could sense another, darker power level inside her, wrestling for control. "Frieza!" Vegeta Jr. spoke.

"The aura feels very similar to his aura with regard to malevolence, but it can't be. Frieza's in HFIL!" Toby responded.

Just then, something else happened. The Three-star Dragon ball had fallen out of Toby's discarded trenchcoat, and was turning to a dark-blue color. After it finished recoloring itself, it cracked, and blue smoke started billowing forth. The Dragon ball rose above the ground, and the smoke soon started to take shape. It looked humanoid, and eventually, the smoke cleared and revealed Sayer, albeit with the Dragon ball embedded in his right hand.

"Impossible…" Toby spoke. "Sayer, a Shadow Dragon Bearer?"

By that point, the malevolent power level inside Misty had taken a hold of her, and she started to speak in a dark-sounding voice. "I thought I took care of you!"

"People generally think a lot of things naively!" Sayer reciprocated with a voice that could best be described as frozen.

"This is an honor. You, the pathetic human known as Sayer, are the first to survive being devoured by an Earthbound Immortal."

"Sayer did indeed die! But how dare you call me, Eis Shenron, a pathetic human!"

Sayer transformed into another form at that point.. This form was highly reminiscent of Nuova Shenron, with the mostly humanoid shape, and the only difference being that this one was colored blue instead of red. A blue-green beam shot out from the creature's eyes, heading straight for Misty, but the Earthbound Immortal, as the voice called it, blocked the attack with its hand. The hand started to freeze where the eye laser was hitting it, the ice slowly building up until it was completely frozen up to the wrist.

"Pathetic. This so-called immortal looks extremely weak!" Eis scoffed.

The Earthbound Immortal proceeded to close the frozen hand in a fist, shattering the ice as easily as breaking a twig.

"You are a fool, Dragon!" Misty spoke in the dark voice. "The Earthbound Immortals were in existence long before your pathetic Dragon balls were even born. Our strength is unmatched even by the power of your so-called Shadow Dragons!"

"Let us put that theory to the test!"

"Pah, I'll deal with you later! I've got a Signer to destroy!"

"The Immortal is not your main concern anyway, Eis!" Nuova Shenron barked, having taken over Toby's body.

"You want to fight, eh brother?" Eis asked confidently.

"We will Duel! The winner gets to keep their body!"

"Interesting. I accept. I'll even defeat you in two minutes, and do what would have taken you two years."

A Shadow Dragon Duel Disk grew on Eis' left arm, and a Deck appeared inside. Vegeta Jr. and Yusei had decided to join Nuova in his fight, having ran to him and readying their own Disks. During this sunset, the warmth of a Shadow Dragon, Signer and Saiyan would clash against cold evil…


	14. Chapter 14: The Three Star Dragon

**Author's note: **Welcome to Chapter 14 of The Shadow Dragons Live On. As usual, any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards, but are very much necessary for the advancement of the plot. Hope you enjoy. Without further ado, here's Chapter 14.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 14:<span> The Three-Star Dragon

Eis Shenron engaged his Duel Disk, followed by Nuova, Vegeta and Yusei. Eis went first, playing **Three-Star: Driving the Snow**. The scenery all around, including Akiza's Duel, changed to show tundra. An elongated black dragon descended from the sky and flew over the snow. It then dove in, emerged at another point and repeated the process. After a couple times of the process repeating itself, the only thing that remained was the Dragon frozen in ice. The scenery returned to normal, and Eis then stepped onto the field.

"I assume that this means he has summoned a Shadow Token?" Vegeta Jr. asked.

"Yes," came Nuova's reply.

"What type of Token is this?" Yusei wondered.

"It looks like a 2500 Attack point, WATER, Aqua-type token."

Eis then summoned Caravan of the Ice Barrier (500/200) and played Moray of Greed, returning two WATER monsters in his hand to his Deck and drawing three cards. Graceful Charity activated, allowing the drawing of three cards at the cost of discarding two. The ability of his monster activated, returning two 'Ice Barrier' monsters in the Graveyard to the Deck and allowing the drawing of another card by everyone. He played Double Summon, summoning Blizzard Warrior (1400/400), after which he activated Spiritual Water Art – Aoi, sacrificing Caravan of the Ice Barrier to look at and select one card in Nuova's hand to send to the Graveyard. Eis chose Nuova's Fire Princess, disposing of it.

"That's just not fair!" Yusei protested.

"Stop being so sentimental!" Eis responded. "In a true battlefield, there are no rules, just victory or death! Besides, dirty moves work better than clean ones, and I'll do anything to win."

"So you're saying anything and everything goes?" Vegeta Jr. questioned.

"Good boy. It is part of the reason why Sayer was so appealing as my host, because he possessed no such vanity and a pleasing disregard for rules!"

Nuova took his turn by playing Pot of Greed for two free cards, playing a second for another two (gaining the cards he had hoped to draw), placing one face-down and playing two cards. The first was the Normal Spell Card **Spontaneous Combustion**, requiring a discard of a FIRE Pyro-type monster and allowing any Set cards to be immediately activated until the End Phase, whereupon any remaining Set cards would be destroyed. The second card was Guardian Treasure. He discarded his hand to draw two cards, and earn the right to draw an extra card every draw phase. Disgraceful Charity, due to **Spontaneous Combustion**, revealed itself, returning the discarded cards to Nuova's hand. Solemn Wishes came into play, and Monster Reborn revived the Fire Princess (1300/1500) that Eis had made him discard due to the effect pf Spiritual Water Art – Aoi.

Nuova summoned The Thing in the Crater (1000/1200), placed two cards face-down and revealed the first: Altar for Tribute (due to **Spontaneous Combustion**), destroying the monster to gain 1000 Life Points for a total of 5000. The ability of the Fire Princess activated, dealing 500 points of damage to Eis since Nuova gained Life Points. The monster ability of The Thing in the Crater also activated since it was sent to the Graveyard: a Pyro monster could be Special Summoned from Nuova's hand, and he chose another Fire Princess. Last Will revealed itself, again due to **Spontaneous Combustion**, allowing a third Fire Princess to be Special Summoned from Nuova's Deck in exchange for shuffling afterwards. Nuova's last card, Graceful Charity, was played, and he drew three cards, sending two to the Graveyard. Because of this, Solemn Wishes activated and gave Nuova 500 Life Points to bring him to 5500. The Fire Princesses also dealt 1500 damage to Eis, leaving him on 2000. **Spontaneous Combustion** disintegrated at the end of Nuova's turn.

Vegeta Jr. drew, now having seven cards in his hand due to Eis' maneuver. He placed four cards face-down and ended his turn. Yusei, also having seven cards in his hand after drawing, knew that he had to proceed carefully. He discarded Quillbolt Hedgehog (800/800) to Special Summon Quickdraw Synchron (700/1400), and Special Summoned the discarded Hedgehog due to its ability of returning when a Tuner is face-up on the field. The level 5 Quickdraw Synchron activated its ability to treat its name as any 'Synchron' Tuner monster when Synchro Summoning with this card, Yusei choosing to treat it as 'Junk Synchron'. It was then tuned to the Level 2 Quillbolt Hedgehog to Synchro Summon a Level 7 Junk Archer (2300/2000). Yusei ended his turn with a face-down card.

Eis drew, and a chunk of ice formed in his Spell and Trap card zone. Vegeta Jr. revealed Royal Writ of Taxation, randomly choosing one card to look at in his opponent's hand. The card picked happened to be Barrier Statue of the Torrent (1000/1000). The ice-element Shadow Dragon proceeded to activate Cold Wave, stopping everyone from setting or activating any Spell or Trap cards. His next move was to summon Barrier Statue of the Torrent and sacrifice it to Tribute Summon Mobius the Frost Monarch (2400/1000). Its ability activated, allowing Eis to select and destroy two Spell or Trap cards on the field, choosing Nuova's Guardian Treasure and Solemn Wishes.

Eis' next move was to attack Nuova's Fire Princess with Blizzard Warrior. Since Nuova couldn't defend due to Cold Wave, his Princess was destroyed and he took 100 points of damage to come to 5400. The effect of Blizzard Warrior activated, allowing Eis to inspect the top card of his opponent's Deck and choose to either put it back on top, or send it to the bottom. Eis took a look and sent it to the bottom. The next to attack was Mobius, destroying another Fire Princess and inflicting 1100 damage to Nuova, leaving him on 4300. Eis' Shadow Token destroyed the remaining Fire Princess and inflicted 1200 damage, leaving Nuova on 3100.

Nuova drew one card and gained 200 Life Points from Marie the Fallen One in his Graveyard (discarded via Graceful Charity). However, the card he drew was a Spell Card, Nibelung's Treasure, and Cold Wave stopped him from using that, so all he could do was end his turn.

Vegeta Jr. drew, and was also left unable to do anything, so he also ended his turn. At that point, he took 1000 damage from Royal Writ of Taxation, as the card that he selected had been played. He was left on 3000 Life Points.

Yusei drew, and activated Junk Archer's ability, removing Mobius the Frost Monarch from play until the End Phase. With that, the Archer attacked Blizzard Warrior, destroying it and leaving Eis at 1100 Life Points. Mobius returned to the field after the attack.

Eis' turn came, and after he drew and gained a second counter, Cold Wave wore off. He played Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until they held six cards, after which he played Exchange, choosing to take a card from Nuova's hand. He took Nibelung's Treasure, while Nuova took Reese the Ice Mistress (800/800). The Three-Star Dragon activated the stolen Nibelung's Treasure, choosing to activate the Spell Card Mirror of the Ice Barrier on Nuova's side of the field (which did nothing), and draw five cards to hold a hand of 9. Another Graceful Charity was played, and Eis drew three cards and discarded two from his hand. He also activated Pot of Greed to draw two cards. Four cards were placed face-down and Emergency Provisions activated, destroying those four cards and increasing Eis' Life Points from 1100 to 5100.

Eis' next move was the Spell card Medallion of the Ice Barrier, adding one Ice Barrier Monster from his Deck to his Hand. He Normal Summoned another Caravan of the Ice Barrier (500/200) and used its ability: by returning two Ice Barrier monsters from his Graveyard to his Deck, each player could draw one card. Eis then used the Spell Card Magic Triangle of the Ice Barrier, revealing Strategist of the Ice Barrier, Spellbreaker of the Ice Barrier and Dai-sojo of the Ice Barrier. Since Eis revealed those monsters, he could now destroy one card controlled by his opponents, choosing Junk Archer. Due to the second effect of the Spell card Eis used, he Special Summoned Strategist of the Ice Barrier (1600/1600), whereupon its effect was activated, sending one Ice Barrier monster from his hand to the Graveyard to draw one card.

Eis had then decided to attack Yusei with his Shadow Token, but was stopped by a set Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, which re-set itself afterwards. The scarecrow, however, couldn't be used to block another attack until next turn. Nuova knew that his brother could easily finish off Yusei now that his field was wide open, so he was about to act. Vegeta Jr. however, acted first when the Shadow Dragon attacked with Mobius. He activated Imperial Manners, destroying all Attack-position monsters Eis controlled, save for the Shadow Token which couldn't be destroyed by card effects. Eis set two cards and ended his turn.

Nuova drew, his hand containing seven cards. He gained another 200 Life Points from Marie the Fallen One to come to 3500. He set a card and activated two cards. The first was a second Solemn Wishes. The second was Soul Charge; bringing back three Fire Princesses at a 500 Life Point cost each, leaving him at 2000. Emergency Provisions then activated, destroying Nuova's set card and giving him 1000 Life Points. Another Pot of Greed was played, allowing him to draw two cards and have Solemn Wishes heal him by 500 points. Both times, the Fire Princesses took off 1500 points from Eis, for a total of 3000, leaving him at 2100. Reese the Ice Mistress was then summoned, and sacrificed to bring out Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch (2400/1000). Its ability activated, allowing Nuova to select one random card for Eis to discard. The card chosen happened to be the level 6 Dai-sojo of the Ice Barrier, inflicting 600 points of damage to Eis, bringing him to 1500 Life Points.

Vegeta Jr. drew, also having seven cards in his hand afterwards. He placed two cards face-down, summoned United Resistance (1000/400), played Double Summon to Summon Oppressed People (400/2000) and used Foolish Burial to send a monster in his Deck to the Graveyard. He then used Monster Reborn to revive People Running About (600/600), ending his turn on that note.

Yusei drew, and summoned Turbo Synchron (100/500), after which he used Double Summon to summon Junk Synchron. Turbo Synchron attacked Eis' Shadow Token, switching it to Defense position via its effect. Its other effect also activated, allowing Yusei to Special Summon one monster with Attack points equal to or less than the damage he had taken, which had amounted to 2400. He chose to bring out Junk Collector (1000/2200) and tuned the Level 3 Junk Synchron to the Level 5 Junk Collector to summon Stardust Dragon (2500/2000).

Eis began his turn by getting a third counter, and played another Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards.

"Now things get interesting. I activate an ability of my Shadow Token: Ice ray! I can activate this anytime I wish. By giving up three Frost counters, I can target one monster and give it an Ice Counter, essentially freezing it. This renders it unable to attack, switch battle position, activate abilities or inflict Battle Damage. I choose one of your Fire Princesses!" Eis spoke, and as he did, a bluish-green ray shot from his eyes and hit a Fire Princess, encasing it in ice.

"Oh, and another thing: if a monster that isn't a Pyro-type attacks a monster with an Ice Counter, it is instantly destroyed and the monster gains another attack!" Eis continued.

He wasn't done, though. He went into Attack mode, attacked Vegeta Jr.'s Oppressed People and revealed Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward by three, gaining three more Frost Counters. They disappeared again, and another beam of light shot from Eis' eyes, freezing another Fire Princess. Another Turn Jump revealed itself, providing three more Counters, and again, they disappeared. Again, a beam of light shot from his eyes, this time freezing the last Fire Princess.

Meanwhile, the attack continued. Eis headed towards Vegeta Jr.'s monster, but the young Saiyan triggered Negate Attack, stopping the attack and ending the Battle Phase. Eis, however, started laughing. A card came out of his Extra Deck.

"What are you doing?" Yusei demanded.

"Well…" Eis spoke, "…whenever I use five Frost Counters or more in one turn, I can add the Spell card **Three-Star Support: Frozen Domain** to my hand. This Continuous Spell card is unlike others in that it cannot be in the Main Deck, only the Extra Deck, so it has a somewhat steep cost attached, although no price is too high when you know you are going to win!"

"You don't know that. This Duel is not over!"

"It soon will be! I activate the Continuous Spell card **Three-Star Support: Frozen Domain**! Now, since I have the Field Spell **Three-Star: Driving the Snow** in play, this allows me to gain two Frost Counters per turn instead of one!"

As soon as Eis inserted the card, the entire area froze. He set a card face-down, played Field Barrier, played Spell Reproduction to get a Spell back from his Graveyard at the cost of two Spells and ended his turn.

Nuova drew, but only gained Life Points from Solemn Wishes to come to 4000. Due to his Fire Princesses being frozen, he couldn't inflict the 1500 fatal damage needed to win. He played Burning Spear, equipping it to Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. This increased its Attack points by 400 and decreased its Defense points by 200 since it was a FIRE monster. (2800/800). Nuova attacked with this, intending to destroy the Shadow Token, but Eis revealed his third Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward again three times, but this time, giving up to the maximum of five Frost Counters. Two disappeared, and the Shadow Token sank his fingers into the icy ground. As soon as Nuova's monster was about to hit, the Shadow Token made a slashing movement right across Thestalos' face. Its Attack and Defense points were reduced by half (1400/400) and the resulting counterattack destroyed it, bringing Nuova's Life Points down to 2900.

Vegeta Jr. drew, and revealed Huge Revolution. Since he had the monsters People Running About, Oppressed People and United Resistance on the field, he could destroy all cards in Eis' hand and on the field. The only things to survive were the Shadow Token, which couldn't be destroyed, and Eis' Field spell, protected by Field Barrier. Vegeta Jr. then summoned Exiled Force (1000/1000) and activated Brave Attack, sacrificing the other monsters to power up the force with 2000 points, leaving it at 3000. The monster attacked, but Eis Shenron sacrificed two Frost Counters again to blind the Exiled Force, cutting its Attack power in half to 1500. The monster was destroyed, and Vegeta Jr. was down to 2000 Life Points.

"I'm not done!" Vegeta Jr. exclaimed.

"Oh? Do tell!" Eis spoke mockingly. "I've defeated your pathetic assault!"

"I activate my Normal Spell **Royal Allied Armory**! This allows me to equip an Equip Spell Card from my Hand onto any player's monster, albeit making that player skip his next Draw Phase. To that effect, I activate the Equip Spell Card Excalibur!"

"Please, you have no monsters to equip it to."

"I'm not equipping it to one of _my_ monsters."

"The only thing that can attack me is… oh no. Don't do it. Please, don't!"

"What's wrong, now you beg for mercy? That's right, I equip Excalibur to Yusei's Stardust Dragon, doubling its Attack to 5000! It up to you now, Yusei. Since you can't draw a card, you can win the Duel."

"Please, don't! I'm sorry for standing against you! Please! Don't kill me!"

The Dragon picked up the sword summoned as a result of Vegeta Jr.'s Equip Spell. Yusei took his turn without drawing due to Vegeta Jr.'s Spell, and looked at the Shadow Dragon begging for mercy.

"Please! Help me out here Nuova! I'm sorry I tried to kill you! Please!" Eis continued to beg.

"You brought this upon yourself, Eis. What's more, after the last time you pulled that trick, I know that you will just try to regain the advantage using underhanded means!" Nuova retaliated.

"What do you mean?"

"Do the following words jog your memory: 'The trust you people put in a sniveling weasel is astonishing! Your body might be able to learn my moves, but your brain can't even see through a simple lie'? Yusei, we have to destroy him now! He has only got one Frost Counter left, and he cannot use it as he doesn't have any other monsters to hide behind! Strike the killing blow!"

Hearing Nuova's quote of what his brother said and knowing instinctually that they knew each other, Yusei decided to follow through. The 5000 point Stardust Dragon attacked Eis Shenron's Shadow Token, destroying it and dealing a fatal 2500 damage to the Shadow Dragon. Eis Shenron's whole body began melting away as Stardust Dragon's Shooting Sonic attack hit, and eventually, there was an explosion.

Once the smoke cleared, Sayer was found on the floor, with the purified Three-Star Dragon Ball by his right hand, though he soon vanished in a puff of black smoke.

"You mentioned Eis having only one Frost Counter. What could he have done with that?" Yusei asked Nuova.

"By sacrificing it when his Shadow Token battled, he could instead switch the attack target of the opponent's monster to another monster he controlled, essentially hiding behind that monster."

"What could he have done with four?"

"That is his Super Ice Ray, which would have allowed him to freeze any Spell or Trap card, Set or otherwise, rendering it unable to activate until it is removed from the field."

"I didn't see him use five. What would that have done?"

"By sacrificing all five Frost Counters, he could turn his right arm into a cannon and activate his Dragon Ball Blast. This would have allowed him to attack one monster, with this attack having a piercing effect. Two other things were that all Spell and Trap cards that specifically selected him as a target were negated for the duration of the attack, and were he to attack a frozen monster, his attack points would double."

At that point, the Duel between Akiza and Misty, both of whom had been distracted, came to an end as Akiza prevailed. Her opponent also vanished into dust.


	15. Chapter 15: The Crimson Dragon

Chapter 15: The Crimson Dragon

Toby was devastated. His own sister had disintegrated before his very eyes. What happened to make her do so? Why did this have to happen? It was bad enough him dying on her, but now she dies on him? How did this happen? There were so many things, millions of things, that he wanted to tell her about! He wanted to introduce her to who he had come to know as the closest things to a mother and father that he had! He wanted to introduce her to at least two _true_ friends he made. He wanted her to know that there were some people that he met that weren't autograph-seeking parasites! He wanted to show her how much his powers had developed! He wanted to show her his new powers, his new strength! He wanted to show her the new Deck he had made!

The list went on and on… and now, not one of those things will happen ever again! Misty was gone forever, there was nobody to throw her a lifeline like what happened in his case. She was completely gone now! Toby couldn't help himself… he collapsed onto his knees and his body began shaking with sobs.

He noticed something had fallen where his sister had vanished, and it was giving off some music. Shakily standing up, he flew over to the source, and found the musical locket that he gave to his sister for her birthday. He kneeled down and picked it up, and what he saw inside was really surprising: there was a picture of herself and her little brother.

"So… you really did… treasure it…" Toby sobbed, shaking again. His vision was a lot more blurred now. Tears started falling, but he willed himself not to scream in front of everyone, especially with most of them being people he barely knew.

Suddenly, he felt a warm sensation on his upper back, and saw fingers out of the corner of his right eye clutch onto his right arm. This could only mean that someone had put their arm around him. The only one to do so, from what he could remember, was Misty. Many times when she _wasn't_ working and saw her brother kneeled down and crying, always, her arm would rest around him and let him know that, even though sometimes she may be away on business, in the end, she will always come back for her brother when he needed her.

Hoping that this would still be the case now, he looked to his left… only to find Akiza, also with tears in her eyes. She kneeled down in front of him and embraced him in a tight hug. Toby just couldn't hold it in any longer, and the tears flooded down his eyes. He returned the hug and tightened his own grip. He soon felt other, smaller hands on him. Four of them actually, which could only mean Goku Jr. and, surprisingly, Vegeta Jr. of all people, had also come to support him in his grief. While it did him a lot of good to know that he didn't have to endure this alone, he felt that had he been stronger, this wouldn't have happened. Why was he so weak during a time like this?

At around that point, he felt his power level rising of its own accord. His hair started rising as well, a gust of wind had started raising everyone's hair, and he had started giving off grunts that just spoke of 'powerlessness'. Akiza just held on tighter. These occurrences, however, were quite familiar to the young Saiyans. Soon, Toby's hair began flickering to a gold color, then back to dark brown, then back to gold, then back to dark brown. His hair color continued to flicker, until one point: with a final grunt culminating in a scream, his muscles suddenly bulked, his hair color turned and remained gold, his eyes had turned turquoise and he was giving off a powerful yellow aura.

"I don't believe it…" Goku Jr. stuttered.

"What's happening?" Yusei wondered.

"Toby's become a Super Saiyan!"

At that point, a strange symbol had appeared in the sky, in the shape of some sort of bird, probably a condor. Soon afterwards, a malevolent sludge emerged from somewhere else in Satelite, and Toby, amidst all the sorrow and fury, could sense a malevolent power in the sludge. A third thing to happen, aside from two Duelists pitching up on Duel Runners, was that Toby, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr., along with everyone else there, were swallowed by what appeared to be a flaming red dragon that someone called "the Crimson Dragon". The next thing Toby knew, after he had grasped some control over his emotions, was that he and everyone else was transported to an island with an ancient temple-like structure penetrating through a mansion.

Rex Goodwin was there, explaining what had happened and also revealing that he was now their enemy. The condor glyph rotated until it went from a vertical position to a horizontal position. Toby, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. had heard that the sludge (which had taken the shape of what appeared to be a dragon in Saiyan armor), the King of the Netherworld, must not reach this condor geoglyph. With that in mind, as the Turbo Duel that Rex wanted began, the two other Saiyans assumed their Super Saiyan forms and prepared to attack. After all, this king was slowly making progress towards the island. Thankfully, both Saiyan descendants had been taught fighting techniques and energy waves used by their ancestors, and Toby was taught by the Shadow Dragon that had revived him, so their little trio was prepared.

The three of them took off, and headed towards this so-called king. First, they fired normal energy blasts, but they just seemed to sink into the sludge. Knowing some of Nuova's techniques, Toby conjured a lens and aimed it at one of the kneecaps of the dragon-like sludge. "Nova Death Ray!" he shouted, and a massive amount of heat and light was produced and magnified through the lens into a single deadly beam. The ray penetrated its target, and Toby saw fit to sever that leg. The beam moved, and the one leg of this supposed King of the Netherworld was severed.

Goku Jr. cupped his hands together and took a stance where they were on the right hand side of his body. Energy began charging as he shouted. "Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!" he burst out, thrusting his hands forward and firing a blue-white wave of energy towards the King of the Netherworld, also aiming for the kneecaps. He also succeeded in blasting them off and severing a leg.

Vegeta Jr. had also charged energy, but was flying towards the sludge with his fist clenched. "Big Bang Attack!" he shouted, thrusting his fist and shooting a yellow-white beam of energy forward, this one heading straight towards a hind leg kneecap. He was also successful in destroying his target and severing a leg in the process

The King of the Netherworld had collapsed after having three of its legs severed, crashing into the water on which it was walking. Soon, however, sludge poured forth from the severed areas and formed new legs. With that, it rose and continued to lumber forward. Just then, a strange device appeared in the sky, and purple orbs started to converge on it. Soon, the device opened to reveal a huge black, purple-striped condor, with Rex apparently announcing it as Earthbound Immortal Wiraquocha Rasca. Suddenly, large black condors started pouring forth from the King of the Netherworld, heading towards the Immortal.

Knowing instinctually that these creatures were bad news, Toby ordered everyone back to the island. From there, they took aim and blasted as many condors as possible, using rapid-fire energy waves such as Toby/Nuova's Sun Gun attack.

"Toby, I've got an idea!" Goku Jr. shouted.

"What is it?" Toby responded, still firing at the condor flock

"Grandpa Goku came back recently and taught me the Spirit Bomb!"

"That could actually work, but you'd need to draw energy from the Solar System."

"So be it! I'll do it. It looks like it's our only chance against this King of the Netherworld!"

"Vegeta, change of plan! I need you to protect Goku from any intruders that make it through. We need to buy him some time!"

Upon hearing that, Vegeta Jr. moved to where Goku Jr. was, and resumed blasting condors. Goku Jr., however, had his hands raised to the sky. Condors started flying past despite the bombardment, but strangely, they ignored the trio of Super Saiyans. Instead, they continued flying toward the Earthbound Immortal, but this time, two Dragons were summoned to combat them. The first was Black Rose Dragon, which was using its vines and Black Rose Flare on the condors, and another fairy-like Dragon, which just spread its wings and used an attack that the Luna child called "Eternal Sunshine!"

Time continued to pass, but despite the efforts of the Saiyans and Signer Dragons, there were condors making it through. The King of the Netherworld was now three quarters of the way to their position, but then Goku Jr. shouted for everyone to get down and threw his arms down. A large blue sphere of energy descended from the sky, and headed straight for the King of the Netherworld. Just as it was about to hit, claws of sludge extended forward to grab it. The Spirit Bomb impacted, and sank into the King, slowly, but surely disintegrating the sludge. Soon, there was an explosion, but afterwards, the King was still standing. Just then, the Crimson Dragon reformed as a beam shot out from the mouth of the sludge. The Dragon collided with the beam, plowing through it and blasting through the mouth of the King of the Netherworld.

Inside some other dimension, Yusei was watching Roman Goodwin and his brother Rex walk off into a light. Just as Rex disappeared, a shadow grabbed him, shouting in a malevolent voice: "I wait… no more!"

Back on Earth, the One-Star Dragon Ball that had unwittingly been brought with had started turning to a dark-blue color, with the star turning black. Once the ball had completely changed color, it cracked, and black/dark blue smoke billowed forth. The smoke engulfed the Dragon Ball and eventually took the form of Rex Goodwin. Yusei, Jack and Crow, the three Duelists who had defeated Rex in a Turbo Duel just then, had been returned by that point, and were shocked at seeing him there, even more so since he had a Dragon ball protruding from his forehead.

"Director Goodwin?" a Security officer, who was also there, asked? In response, Goodwin just raised an arm, with a finger pointed at the officer. A beam of light shot forward, and the officer found himself tackled to the ground by Nuova Shenron just in time to avoid a fatal stream of energy.

"Syn Shenron!" he stated.

"Nuova, I see you have survived quite some time," Goodwin began speaking, albeit in a different, more malevolent voice. "Unlike one hundred years ago."

"Goodwin, what is the meaning of this!" Yusei shouted.

"Didn't you listen to Nuova? I am not Rex Goodwin. I thought it was a giveaway with this body having a Dragon Ball on its head!"

"Then who are you?

"That is Syn Shenron!" Nuova stated, having rejoined Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. Rex's body began bulking up, and turning to a pale brown/white color, except for his stomach, which began turning blue. Spikes started sprouting all over his body, Rex lost his hair and grew two massive horns, with the One-Star Dragon Ball being lodged firmly in his forehead.

By the end of it, Syn Shenron had assumed his true form. "Pathetic," he began speaking, "…if my host wanted to become the ultimate god, he should have just slit his own throat and I would have become the god for him! And to think, I was held back by a pathetic condor calling itself Wiraquocha Rasca!"

Syn then powered up, unleashing a gust of wind that blew everyone back. The only ones to remain were Nuova Shenron, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. The wind soon died down.

"Enough, Syn. If you want to fight, then fight me!" Nuova spoke, readying his Duel Disk.

"Me too!" Goku Jr. shouted, also readying his Duel Disk.

"Don't forget about me!" Vegeta Jr. burst out, his Duel Disk also at the ready.

"Of course, I want to fight…" Syn responded, creating a Shadow Dragon Duel Disk, "… and I have no choice but to fight you three, there's nobody else around!"

Looking around, Nuova could see that Syn Shenron had cleared the area of spectators. However, they could soon be spotted returning… all of them. With Nuova Shenron, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. against the One-Star Dragon, Syn Shenron, this was going to be the most difficult yet. As the sun started to rise, so did the Duel begin.

* * *

><p><strong>End<strong>** note:** So, anyone want to venture a guess as to what Syn Shenron will have in his Deck? Who knows... it will definitely be powerful, though, as in GT he was the strongest of all the Shadow Dragons. I should hopefully be back soon to upload the next chapter.


	16. Chapter 16: The One Star Dragon

**Author's**** note**: Really been looking forward to this chapter, the Duel with Syn Shenron. As always, any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 16<span>: The One-Star Dragon

Syn Shenron, along with Nuova, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr., activated a Duel Disk. Syn went first, playing **One-Star: Supremacy**. The scene changed to that of 100 years ago, where the Black Smoke Dragon that rose out of the Dragon Balls had swallowed the seven orbs. It promptly turned into a tornado, and from it, six long black dragons burst forth, each going a separate path. The seventh one to leave was the Black Smoke Dragon, which formed into Syn Shenron himself.

"Hold on," Goku "Jr. began. "Haze was DARK, Naturon was EARTH, Rage was LIGHT, Oceanus was WIND, Nuova is FIRE and Eis is WATER. What could this Dragon possibly be?"

"Ignorant child," Syn scoffed. "There is one fact, and attribute, that you have overlooked."

"What?!"

"My Field Spell name has the word 'Supremacy' in it. You saw my origin, eating the Dragon Balls and creating the Dragons. You should know that I am a god."

"Then what are you?"

"I am the strongest of the Shadow Dragons. I am DIVINE."

"So, what does your Field Spell do?

"It summons a Shadow Token with 3000 Attack and Defense points!"

"But what Attribute are you?"

"Haven't you been listening? I am a DIVINE Attribute, Divine-Beast-type Shadow Token!"

"DIVINE?! But cards like that are rare, so how can you possibly have a Deck of Divine monsters?"

"You will find out soon enough."

Syn Shenron set a card face down and activated Graceful Charity, allowing for the drawing of three cards at the cost of discarding two. He then removed the two discarded cards, the LIGHT Barrier Statue of the Heavens and the DARK Barrier Statue of the Abyss from play to Special Summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning (3000/2500), with which followed the summoning of Armageddon Knight (1400/1200) and activation of its ability, allowing Syn to send one DARK monster from his Deck to his Graveyard. He then played Foolish Burial, sending another monster from his Deck to his Graveyard. For his next move, he removed the DARK Delg the Dark Monarch and the LIGHT Kuraz the Light Monarch in the Graveyard from play to Special Summon Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End (3000/2500)

"This isn't going to end well!" Leo spoke. "Three 3000 Point monsters in one turn, the _first_ turn no less!"

"Dueling one of these Dragons is difficult…" Yusei began, "…but it's not impossible. They'll find a way."

Nuova played Solemn Wishes and summoned Fire Princess (1300/1500). His next move was to play Double Summon and summon The Thing in the Crater (1000/1000), and deciding to play the two cards in his hand. Firstly, he played Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. He then played Dual Gate, removing the face-up card and one in the Graveyard from the game to draw two cards. Playing the three cards left in his hand, he activated **Spontaneous Combustion**, discarding a FIRE Pyro monster to allow Spell and Trap cards to be activated the turn they were set. The second card played was **Ignition of Greed**, banishing one FIRE Pyro-type monster in the Graveyard from the game to allow Nuova to draw an equivalent number of cards as the banished monster's level. The card banished was the Raging Flame Sprite discarded for the last card, a Level 3 monster, allowing Nuova to draw three cards, all of which were played. The first was Pot of Greed, allowing him to draw two cards. The second was Altar for Tribute, destroying Nuova's second monster, giving him 1000 Life Points and also allowing the Special Summon of a Pyro-type monster from his hand, choosing Fire Princess. The third card was Last Will, Special Summoning a Fire Princess from his Deck. His Life Points had also increased by 500 due to Solemn Wishes (5500), and both times, the one Fire Princess inflicted damage to Syn's Life Points, bringing him to 3000. **Spontaneous Combustion** destroyed itself at the end of the turn.

Goku Jr. drew, played Graceful Charity for three cards at the cost of two being discarded, played Pot of Greed for two free cards and summoned Psychic Armor Head (0/500). He then activated Armored Gravitation, Special Summoning all Armor Monsters in his hand. By this effect, he summoned Buster Pyle (0/0), Jet Gauntlet (0/1500), Over Boost (0/1000) and Active Guard (0/2500), the last of which gained 2500 extra Defense Points due to him controlling five Armor monsters. All of these monsters attached to him

Vegeta Jr. drew, and placed five cards face-down.

"What does he hope to achieve with that? Why didn't he summon a monster?" Leo asked.

"I have seen that tactic before," Yusei responded.

"As have I," Akiza chimed in. "It's how he beat Sayer."

Syn began his turn, and a corrupted Dragon Ball without a star appeared in his Spell and Trap card zone.

"Now, I activate the ability of my Dragon Ball Counter!" Syn stated.

"What?! Already?" Goku Jr. asked, shocked.

"Yes. Now I can sacrifice a Dragon Ball Counter to add a 'Star' Field Spell to my hand. What is more is that due to another ability of **One Star: Supremacy**, I can play another Field Spell on top of it as long as it is a 'Star' Field Spell!"

"Wait a minute…"

"By destroying the Dragon Ball Counter, I add the Field Spell **Four-Star: Volcano Diver** to my Hand!"

Syn then activated that Field Spell. However, instead of the scenery changing again, something happened to the Shadow Token. The black spikes on Syn Shenron grew longer, the fleshy spikes on his torso disappeared, the angle between his horns narrowed and the Dragon Ball relocated to his torso, with the Four-Star ball appearing by it. His Life Points jumped to 4000, and the Shadow Token's Attack power jumped by 500 to come to 3500.

"Why did your Life Points and Shadow Token's Attack points increase?" Vegeta Jr. asked, bewildered

"His strength lies in the very Dragon Balls themselves!" Nuova Shenron informed. "When he absorbs another Dragon Ball, which counts here as playing a 'Star' Field Spell, he grows stronger. In this case, he gains 1000 Life Points and 500 Attack points for every 'Star' Field Spell in play."

"That's right! I am Omega Shenron, the Dragon of Absolute Destruction! That is now an Omega Shadow Token!" came the reply from Syn Shenron, whose voice had changed slightly.

Syn, or Omega, played Card of Sanctity for five cards in exchange for discarding his hand in five turns, summoned Honest (1100/1900) and proceeded to activate the effect of Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End. He paid 1000 Life Points (3000) to send all card in his hand and his opponents' hands and all cards on the field to the Graveyard, inflicting 300 points of damage per card. Nuova's three Fire Princesses and Solemn Wishes, Goku Jr.'s five Armor monsters and Set card, Vegeta Jr.'s five Set cards and Syn's four Monsters were all due to go, inflicting 5700 damage to his opponents by the mass-destruction on the field alone, with the lone card in Vegeta Jr.'s hand bringing the damage up to 6000.

Vegeta Jr. revealed one of his Traps, The Huge Revolution is Over, negating the mass-destruction effect's activation and banishing Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End. Omega, at that point, attacked Goku Jr.'s Psychic Armor Head with Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, but Vegeta Jr. revealed Imperial Manners. Since he controlled no monsters and his opponent declared an attack, all of Omega's monsters would be destroyed. The Shadow Dragon, tired of being mocked by this Saiyan, attacked Vegeta Jr. directly with the surviving 3500 Attack point Omega Shenron Shadow Token. In response, his target activated the Trap Card **Saiyan Battle Armor**, halving the damage taken. Vegeta Jr.'s Life Points decreased to 2250, and his Armor, while cracking, gained a number that read 1750. Finally, Omega tried to banish the Honest and Armageddon Knight in his Graveyard to Special Summon Chaos Sorcerer (2300/2000), but Vegeta Jr. further hampered the Dragon's efforts with the Trap Card Imperial Iron Wall, stopping monsters from being removed from play. Unable to do anything else, Omega placed three cards face-down, activated Field Barrier and ended his turn.

Nuova drew, and gained 500 Life Points due to Solemn Wishes. Following that, the Fire Princesses activated their effects, inflicting 500 points of damage per Princess, totaling 1500, bringing him to 1000. Nuova activated Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw from their Decks until they were holding six cards, activating Solemn Wishes again to gain 500 Life Points (6500) and subsequently activating the effect of the Fire Princesses again, dealing another 1500 damage to Omega. However, Omega activated Rainbow Life, discarding one card to negate all the damage he had taken this turn, and instead gain Life Points equal to the damage negated. This brought him up to 5500 Life Points. Nuova, hoping to weaken Omega's Shadow Token, summoned a Plasma Eel (500/1200) and equipped it to the Token. He ended with two face-down cards.

Goku Jr. drew, set a second card face-down and attacked Omega's improved Shadow Token, which could actually be destroyed by a card effect as long as it was specifically targeted, with Buster Pyle. Omega, however, activated Turn Jump, moving the game forward by three turns and giving three Dragon Ball Counters. Goku Jr.'s fist hit, but just glanced off. However, Buster Pyle activated its effect, destroying the Omega Shadow Token and damaging his opponent's Life Points by 500 to come to 5000. Strangely, they descended further, to 4000.

"You ignorant child!" spoke the Shadow Dragon. "You think yourself to have triumphed? When you destroy the Omega Shadow Token, it forces me to return a 'Star' Field Spell to my Deck, and if I only have Supremacy in play afterwards, it. Special Summons the normal Shadow Token. However, should there be a 'Star' Field Spell in play other than Supremacy after I return a Field Spell, the destruction is negated!"

"But you are back to the form of Syn Shenron now!" Goku Jr. retaliated.

"Hehehe, not for long. What's more, Nuova's Plasma Eel has also been destroyed by your foolishness since the monster it was attached to has bee destroyed"

Vegeta Jr. then took his turn by playing Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. Afterwards, he played two cards. The first card was Birthright, Special Summoning a Normal Monster from his Graveyard on the condition if the monster would be removed from the field, the card would be destroyed and vice versa. Vegeta Jr. revived People Running About (600/600) and used Monster Reborn to revive Oppressed People (400/2000). To complete the triangle needed, he Normal Summoned United Resistance (1000/400), and with that, he activated his final set Trap Card Huge Revolution. This destroyed every card in Syn's Hand and on his Field, with the only things remaining being **One-Star: Supremacy **(due to Field Barrier) and Syn's Shadow Token. Vegeta Jr. ended his turn with the Spell Card Fiend's Sanctuary, Special Summoning one Metal Fiend Token (0/0) and two face-down card.

Syn drew, and gained another Dragon Ball Counter. However, he sacrificed all four to add the Field Spells **Three-Star: Driving the Snow**, **Four-Star: Volcano Diver**, **Five-Star: Descending Dragon Thunder** and **Six-Star: Dragon in the Clouds** from his Deck to his Hand, playing them all afterwards. His form turned back to that of Omega Shenron, now only missing two Dragon Balls on his torso, his Omega Shadow Token was now at 5000 Attack points and his Life Points were now on 8000. He set the only card in his hand face-down and ended his turn.

"Impossible! 8000 Life Points and 5000 Attack and Defense points?!" Leo yelled out, horrified.

Nuova drew, and gained 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes to come to 7000. Due to this, the Fire Princesses had inflicted a total damage of 1500 to Omega to bring him to 6500. A shred of hope had emerged at last. He had drawn the card that Toby had placed into the Deck: Gold Sarcophagus. Hoping that this would work, he played it, explaining that he was now to remove a card from his Deck and place it face-down. If Omega were to activate a card of the same name, it would be destroyed on the spot. Nuova placed another card face-down. One card he had come to suspect was face-down on Omega's field was Chaos Burst, making attacking with a strong monster inadvisable. Chaos Burst would activate when Syn was attacked by a monster, tributing the target, destroying the attacking monster and inflicting its Attack value as damage to the opponent.

Goku Jr. began his turn by attacking Omega with Buster Pyle, but another Turn Jump revealed itself, moving the turn count forward by three and gaining three Dragon Ball Counters. All damage was negated, but the Omega Token survived by shuffling a random 'Star' Field Spell back into his Deck, just happening to pick **Four-Star: Volcano Diver**. His Life Points decreased by 1000 to 5500 and his Omega Shadow Token's Attack points decreased to 4500

Vegeta Jr.'s turn began with him having to pay 1000 Life Points to keep his Metal Fiend Token in play. He was now at 1250 Life Points, allowing him to activate the Trap Card Aura Armor, which Special Summoned a Player Token at the cost of halving Life Points. As this happened, he stepped into the Duel field, and white/red armor started to form on him. So he came down to 625 points, and that also became the number of Attack and Defense points that his Player Token had. At that point, Vegeta placed the last card in his hand face-down and activated the second card he had set last turn: Altar for Tribute. This destroyed United Resistance and gave him 1000 Life Points, increasing both his total Life Points and his Token's Attack points to 1625.

Syn Shenron drew, and gained a fourth Dragon Ball Counter. By this time he was supposed to have discarded his hand, but there was no hand to discard, leaving him able to keep the card he drew. He played another Card of Demise, drawing five cards on condition that he discards his hand in five turns. He then sacrificed three of his Dragon Ball Counters to add three. His next card to activate was the Normal Spell Card **Elemental Vortex**, forcing him to permanently remove one monster of each Attribute and all six Spiritual Art cards in his Deck from the game to activate a card in _any_ Graveyard, ignoring activation requirements and removing it at the End Phase. He removed Caius the Shadow Monarch, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, Raiza the Storm Monarch, Granmarg the Rock Monarch, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, Mobius the Frost Monarch, Dark Spirit Art – Greed, Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri, Spiritual Wind Art – Miyabi, Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane, Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai and Spiritual Water Art – Aoi in his Deck from play and activated Nuova's **Spontaneous Combustion**.

"Nuova, I know you have got your own copy of the Four-Star Field Spell in your Sarcophagus. Due to your card, I activate Phantom Destruction to flip your Sarcophagus face down, and I activate Card of Distrain to, since you control at least two face-downs, stop you from using one of them, and I choose the Gold Sarcophagus I flipped face-down!"

"No!" Nuova shouted in despair.

"Yes. Now I sacrifice three Dragon Ball Counters to add the Field Spells **Two-Star: Dark Polluted Lake, Four-Star: Volcano Diver** and **Seven-Star: Dragon-shaped Rock** to my hand!"

Omega then activated these three Field Spell Cards, increasing his Life Points by 3000 to come to 7500 Life Points, and have his Omega Shadow Token increase its Attack points to 6000. All seven Dragon Balls were now on his torso, with the One-Star being in the center. Omega drew something from his Extra Deck afterwards, revealing it to be the continuous Spell Card **One-Star Support: Absolute Destruction**, allowed to only be kept in the Extra Deck and added to his hand when all of the 'Star' Field Spells were in play. Playing it, he revealed that it increased the Counter gain by one per turn.

After all of that, Omega declared the beginning of the Battle Phase, activating what would _not_ turn out to be Chaos Burst, but a third Turn Jump. The Turn Count moved forward by three, this time giving up to the five maximum Dragon Ball Counters. Omega declared that he was attacking Vegeta Jr.'s Player Token, whereupon all of the Dragon Ball Counters vanished, and the balls on Omega's Chest shot out beams of red light that converged into a sphere of energy. This energy grew until it was clearly visible in the New Domino City Skyline, comparable in size to an Earthbound Immortal. After that, the sphere shrank until it was Omega's size.

"In case you are wondering, I can sacrifice five Dragon Ball Counters at any time," Omega began. "This doubles my Attack Points and grants me Piercing effect for the battle phase until I attack a monster! Now, since I am at 6000 points, my Attack is now 12000, more than enough to destroy any one of you! For your mockery of me, Vegeta, you will die first! Now I attack your Armor token with the sum of all of humanity's evils: Negative Karma Ball!" he finished, shooting the powerful sphere of energy forward.

"Not so fast!" Vegeta Jr. shouted as the attack was launched. "Go, Staunch Defender! This changes the attack targets of all of your monsters, all of which have to attack it, to a monster I choose, and I choose my Metal Fiend Token!"

"Big difference! I am still attacking you for 12000 points of damage. None of your armor can take that sort of punishment, and once I finish the other two off, I'll give you all a nice burial along with the spectators!"

"When a monster attacks my Metal Fiend Token, all damage that would be inflicted to me is instead transferred to my opponent!"

As soon as Vegeta Jr. said that, the Negative Karma Ball touched the Metal Fiend Token, disintegrated it, turned blue and got sent back at Omega. "No, No!" Omega kept screaming with his hands outstretched. The ball made contact with him and destroyed all 7500 of his Life Points. Unable to withstand the attack, he disintegrated, leaving Rex Goodwin lying on the ground, soon turning into a black gas as the One-Star Dragon Ball lay purified next to where he was.

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><p><strong>End<strong>** note**: Not too sure if I got the number of things destroyed by Chaos Emperor Dragon at the beginning quite right, but the Field Spells would have made it 6600 points of damage. I was also really tempted to have Omega play Card of Sanctity to give everyone a six-card hand, and then the damage would have been at least 13500 points. Still, I love the Deck I made for Syn/Omega. The story ain't quite over yet, though...


	17. Chapter 17: The Last Dragon: part 1

Chapter 17: The Last Dragon part 1

"We've done it!" Goku Jr. shouted, jumping repeatedly. "We've beaten all the Shadow Dragons!"

"Yeah, it's a huge relief," laughed Toby happily, having resumed control after Syn's defeat. "At last, this long night, and this long fight, is over."

Just then, Toby could sense an energy signature, and hope started to rise. He immediately flew off, followed it and found Misty. His sister had been revived, just like him! She was still unconscious, but she was definitely alive, so he picked her up and took her to where everyone was.

"Woah, does this mean that the Dark Signers have been revived?" Leo asked Yusei upon seeing Misty.

"Yes," Yusei responded.

"Why does that kid seem so happy?"

"Misty just so happens to be Toby's older sister."

"Do you think they're really gone? All the Shadow Dragons?"

"They seem happy, so that is probably the case."

Leo ran over to Toby, only to find that Akiza had beaten him there and pulled Toby into a tight hug. This didn't stop the teal haired twin from joining in.

"Hey, hey, looks like you're having one hell of a party eh!" spoke a cheerful voice. Goku Jr. immediately turned his head. It was Goku Sr., his great, great grandfather.

"Yeah, my job is finally done!" Toby spoke, still with Akiza wrapped around him.

"Hey Toby. Looks like life it treating you really well!"

"What makes you say that?"

"You're caught in a woman's loving embrace. Anyway, Goku, my great, great, great… how many greats was it? Anyway, can you get the rest of the Dragon balls?"

"Sure, Grandpa Goku!" Goku Jr. spoke, taking off afterwards.

"What's going on here? Why do we need the Dragon balls?" Vegeta Jr. asked.

"Well…" spoke a much harsher-sounding voice, "…Kakarot is loathe to admit it, but there is one more part of this task to be done!"

"Vegeta! Did you have to butt in like that?" Goku Sr. complained. "We were having such a good time!"

"So I have to be the bearer of bad news just because you can't stomach the thought?!"

"Vegeta, these kids just beat the most powerful of the revived Shadow Dragons! Don't they deserve a breather? Besides, they pulled an all-nighter!"

That part definitely seemed to be holding true. Akiza was falling asleep while holding Toby, and everyone else was struggling to maintain consciousness. In frustration, Vegeta Sr. pulled out a capsule, pressed the button and threw it on the ground of Rex Goodwin's destroyed mansion. There was a large, somewhat comical BOOM, after which appeared a series of tents.

"There! Get in and rest up!" Vegeta Sr. boomed. Everyone went inside a tent, Akiza accompanying Toby, and found a bedroll large enough for two people inside the tent. This day was among the happiest, if not _the_ happiest, in Toby's life: not only had he and Nuova defeated a great evil, the woman he idolized, Akiza, was bunking with him.

Five hours passed.

Toby woke up quite late in the day, in fact, it was almost sunset again. Akiza was already up, and looked fondly at him, while he couldn't help but blush a bit.

"You know, Toby, I'm sorry for brushing you off when we met," she spoke, placing her hand on his cheek.

"Apology accepted, Akiza," he responded. "I have to ask, though, I don't remember you being this receptive towards me. Please don't get the wrong idea, I'm really glad we'll be able to be friends, I'm just really curious as to what happened."

"That's a long story, and one I don't think we will be able to go into now. That Vegeta guy's right outside."

Toby and Akiza left the tent to find the twins Leo and Luna, Goku Jr., Goku Sr., Vegeta Jr., Vegeta Sr. and Yusei waiting for them.

"Toby, can I please speak to Nuova?" Goku Sr. asked, whereupon Toby let the Shadow Dragon assume control.

"What is it, Goku?" Nuova asked.

"Nuova, I'm really sorry, but I realized that you can't just give up the Dragon ball."

"Yes, I know. Someone has to defeat me."

"I'm really sorry for not telling you this, Nuova."

"No apologies are necessary Goku, it was a good idea not to do so to avoid plunging the boy into absolute despair."

"Should I finish it?"

"I have no problem with that Goku. Fire when ready."

Goku Sr. charged up an energy blast and shot it at Nuova Shenron. However, out of nowhere, Nuova's arm deflected the blast. "What!?" Goku Sr. shouted.

"That didn't come from me!" Nuova said, also shocked. The body then began to shrink and deform until it was in Toby's form again.

"I can't believe you people! Do you really expect me to just _lay down and die?!_" Toby shouted, fury flowing through his veins.

"Toby-" Goku Sr. began.

"All the other dragons have had to fight for them to be truly defeated, why should we be any different?! What's more, you suddenly stab me in the back at the very last second?!"

"Toby, please-"

"No! I've heard enough! After what happened with Sayer murdering me last year, I'm not going to make another attempt so easy. Back then I was defenseless, helpless and _completely_ alone! I couldn't do anything to avert my death! Now, I can do something, and I will be damned if I don't fight for my survival to the best of my ability!"

"He has a good point Kakarot," Vegeta Sr. spoke. "Nobody should sit back and willfully watch their life being taken away from them. Those who do that don't deserve life in the first place. If this boy, and this Shadow Dragon, should die, they should die fighting, like a true warrior!"

Toby was quite happy with Vegeta Sr.'s answer, and, with Nuova now understanding his plight, he let his Shadow Dragon resume control.

"I have come to realize that Toby is right in his actions," Nuova began speaking. "When I found him in Otherworld, he was terrified by it, by death, and he has more than a right to fight against that happening again. Therefore, as Toby's guardian, and a Shadow Dragon, I must fight to the very end as well."

"Who will you fight?" Vegeta Sr. asked.

"I will leave it up to them. They should know that the negative energy inside the Dragon balls created us and, since our defeat 100 years ago, we have been forced to corrupt humans to stay alive. Defeating me frees Toby's life from these chains, makes this life truly his."

"I will fight," Akiza announced. "I brushed Toby off when I first met him, and I promise to make up for it. I will save you, Toby!"

"I'll also fight," Goku Jr. chimed in. "Toby was one of the best friends, duelists and fighters I had got to meet. If it wasn't for him, I probably would have been left a disappointing child, unable to live up to the Son family name!"

"I'm also taking part," Leo stated. "He freed me from one of the Shadow Dragons. I cannot sit back and watch as other people fight this battle. I need to try and do for him what he did for me!"

"Very well, that makes three of you, and three is the most we can have," spoke Nuova. The three Duelists lined up, facing the Shadow Dragon, and all four activated their Duel Disks. The true final battle had begun.


	18. Chapter 18: The Last Dragon: part 2

**Author's**** note:** A final reminder that any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards. With that, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 18:<span> The Last Dragon: part 2

Nuova went first, activating **Four-Star: Volcano Diver**. The scenery changed to show an elongated black dragon diving into a mountain, whereupon it exploded in a shower of lava. He then appeared on the field as a Shadow Token.

"Wait, I've encountered a Shadow Token before, and it only had 500 Attack," Akiza spoke.

"Every Shadow Token is different depending on the 'Star' Field Spell used," Vegeta Jr. supplied. "I know Nuova is a FIRE Pyro-type Shadow Token with 2500 points."

"How do you know this?"

"I Dueled him… and were it not for **Saiyan Battle Armor**, I would have lost in the first turn."

Nuova played Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two, and summoned Fire Princess (1300/1500). He then played Double Summon to summon The Thing in the Crater (1000/1200), followed by Soul Charge to Special Summon the two Fire Princesses in his Graveyard, followed by a face-down card. Card of Sanctity activated, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards. Three more cards were placed face-down, and two cards were played. The first was Ring of Destruction, destroying The Thing in the Crater and dealing damage equal to its Attack power to everyone, bringing Nuova to 2000 and the others to 3000 Life Points. This also activated the ability of The Thing in the Crater, allowing for the Special Summon of a Pyro-type monster in his Hand. He chose to Special Summon Raging Flame Sprite (100/200). The second card was Emergency Provisions, destroying two of Nuova's Set cards to return 1000 Life Points per card to come back to 4000. This in turn, activated the abilities of the Fire Princesses. However, instead of dealing 1500 damage to one player, he chose to deal 500 damage to all three players, taking them down to 2500 Life Points each. Nuova ended his turn.

Akiza drew, and summoned Twilight Rose Knight (1000/1000), using its ability to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Plant-type monster, choosing the level 4 Lord Poison (1500/1000). She then tuned the Level 4 Lord Poison to the Level 3 Twilight Rose Knight to Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800).

Leo drew, and played Morphtronic Celfon (100/100) and activated its ability: since it was in Attack mode, it could allow him to draw a random amount of cards and Special Summon any Level 4 or lower Morphtronics. The random number turned out to be a 6, so he drew six cards, Special Summoning Morphtronic Radion (1000/900), two Morphtronic Magnen (800/800) and a Morphtronic Remoten (300/1200). He then tuned the Level 3 Morphtronic Remoten to the Level 4 Morphtronic Radion to Synchro Summon Power Tool Dragon (2300/2500). He activated its effect to randomly draw one Equip Spell card from his Deck, drawing Double Tool C&D and equipping it to the Dragon, increasing its Attack points by 1000 during his turn to come to 3300 Attack points. Leo ended his turn with two face-down cards.

Goku Jr. drew, and played Pot of Greed for two free cards. Afterwards, he played Psychic Armor Head (0/500) and sacrificed it to summon Double-Cloth Armor (0/0). He then played **Cost of Armor Repair**, allowing him to Special Summon an Armor monster in his Graveyard in exchange for letting another player of his choice use a card from his Deck. He revived Psychic Armor Head and allowed Leo to play his Polymerization. Leo decided to fuse Goku Jr.'s Double-Cloth Armor with his Power Tool Dragon to create **Power Armor** (2000/2500). After the Armor's creation, it descended towards and attached to Leo, giving him an almost yellowish look and making him look like he was wearing Power Tool Dragon as his own suit of armor. The Equip Spell was also preserved, taking the Armor's attack points up to 3000. Goku Jr. placed two cards face-down to end his turn

Nuova drew, and gained a Flame Counter in his Spell and Trap card zone. His first card was Card of Demise, allowing him to draw five cards in exchange for discarding his hand in five turns. He then played Foolish Burial, sending one monster in his Deck to his Graveyard. The Trap card Give and Take activated, allowing him to Special Summon a monster in his Graveyard on his opponent's side of the field in Defense mode. He chose to Special Summon Burning Algae (500/1500) to Akiza's field, and increase the level of his Raging Flame Spirit by the level of the Summoned monster, bringing it to Level 6. For his fifth action, he chose to use Raging Flame Spirit's ability to bypass the attack lock created by Leo and attack him directly. The monster damaged Leo by 100 points (2400), but then it gained 1000 attack to come to 1100. Nuova ended his turn with three face-down cards.

Akiza drew, summoned Evil Thorn (100/300) and Tributed it to inflict 300 damage to Nuova (3700) and summon two more Evil Thorns from her Deck. She then activated Closed Plant Gate. Since she controlled two Plant-type monsters of the same name, her opponent couldn't declare an attack during his next turn. For her third trick, she removed the destroyed Evil Thorn in her Graveyard from play to reduce a monster's Attack points to 0, choosing Nuova's Shadow Token and shouting "Rose Restriction". The Black Rose Dragon then attacked with Black Rose Flare, but Nuova triggered two cards. The first was Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward by three turns and giving three more Flame Counters for a total of four. The second was Magical Arm Shield, allowing Nuova to target one monster belonging to his opponents and redirect the attack to that monster. He chose to have Black Rose Dragon instead attack the Burning Algae on Akiza's field. The monster was destroyed, and as a result, Nuova's Life Points increased by 1000 to 4700. In turn, the Fire Princesses activated their abilities, this time dealing 500 damage to everyone. Leo, however, revealed the Trap Card Damage Eraser, choosing to prevent the 500 damage going to Akiza and gain that many Life Points, in this way also negating the damage going to him. Goku Jr. took 500 points of damage to come to 2000

Leo took his turn knowing that he was up against something with 1100 Attack Points, the ability to ignore his attack lock and the ability to gain 1000 Attack Points with each successful direct attack. That monster, the Raging Flame Sprite, had to be dealt with somehow, but so did the Fire Princesses. He used an ability of **Power Armor**, based off the Power Tool Dragon ability, to draw a random Equip Spell from his Deck, drawing Central Shield. He equipped that, and another Equip Spell Card called 'Break! Draw!' to his **Power Armor**. He then played Morphtronic Celfon's ability. The random number chosen was 1, and the card he drew was Morphtronic Boomboxen (1200/400), a Level 4, which was Special Summoned to the field. With that, he equipped it with the Equip Spell Megamorph, which doubled its Attack points to 2400 since his Life Points were lower than Nuova's. Leo attacked a Fire Princess with Morphtronic Boomboxen, destroying it and bringing Nuova's Life Points down to 3600, but that was when the Shadow Dragon revealed Backfire, dealing 500 points of damage every time a FIRE monster was destroyed. In this case, Leo took 500 damage to come to 1900 Life Points. Morphtronic Boomboxen, due to its Special Ability of being able to attack twice since it was in Attack Mode, attacked another Fire Princess, destroying it and bringing Nuova to 2500 Life Points, also bringing Leo to 1400. **Power Armor** was next to attack a Fire Princess and deal 1700 damage to the Shadow Dragon, leaving him at 800 Life points and Leo at 900. Due to the boy's Life Points being higher, Megamorph instead halved the original Attack points of the equipped Morphtronic Boomboxen to 600.

Goku Jr., instead of drawing, used the ability of Psychic Armor Head to draw an Armor monster. He then played Armored Gravitation, Special Summoning Buster Pyle (0/0), Jet Gauntlet (0/1500), Over Boost (0/1000) and Active Guard (0/2500), the last of which gained a 2500 Defense point bonus due to him controlling five Armor monsters, bringing it to 5000 Defense points. These Armor monsters, like Leo's new **Power Armor**, gravitated towards and attached to the young Saiyan. First, Goku Jr. attacked Raging Flame Sprite with Jet Gauntlet, destroying both monsters with no battle damage. Goku Jr., however, took 500 damage from Backfire since a FIRE monster was destroyed. Mischief of the Time Goddess revealed itself, skipping one turn and going directly to next turn's Battle Phase. With that, he attacked Nuova's Shadow Token with Buster Pyle. The fist impacted, but the Shadow Token wasn't destroyed. The only thing to happen was Nuova's Life Points dropping to 300. Goku Jr. ended his turn there.

Nuova drew, and gained a fifth Flame Counter. Non Aggression Area revealed itself, forcing Nuova to discard a card and forbidding all opponents from Summoning during their next turn. Then, suddenly, all of the Flame Counters disappeared.

"What happened?" Akiza questioned.

"By sacrificing five Flame Counters, I can immediately retrieve from my Extra Deck and activate the Field Spell **Four-Star Support: Smoldering Desert**." Nuova spoke.

"But what about your current Field Spell?"

"That will stay, the ability of the Field Spell I am about to use allows it to be played on top of my current one without canceling it out. Go, **Four-Star Support: Smoldering Desert**!"

The area immediately turned into a desert, with a very high heat present. The red shell of Nuova started cracking, eventually breaking to show a yellow-golden shell with purple flesh on the stomach and wings. Nuova's strength increased to 2800 Attack points. "As a side effect of this Field Magic, I can either choose to gain two Flame Counters right now, or draw five cards, and I choose to draw," Nuova spoke, drawing from his Deck.

Nuova then proceeded to use Monster Reborn to revive Raging Flame Sprite and summoned Flame Ruler (1500/1600). He then sacrificed Flame Ruler, its ability counting as two Tributes for summoning a FIRE monster, to summon Infernal Flame Emperor (2700/1600) and sacrificed Raging Flame Sprite to summon Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch (2400/1000). The ability of Infernal Flame Emperor activated, Nuova removed five FIRE monsters in his Graveyard from play to destroy an equal number of Spell and/or Trap cards on the field. The three Equip Spells on **Power Armor** disappeared, as did the Equip Spell Megamorph on Morphtronic Boomboxen, returning the monsters' Attack points to 2000 and 1200 respectively. The last card to disappear was Goku Jr.'s Set card.

The ability of Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch activated, and Nuova chose to discard one random card from Leo's hand. The card discarded was Morphtronic Videon, a Monster Card, and Leo was dealt damage equal to its level multiplied by 100, totaling 400 damage, leaving Leo with just 500 Life Points. Since Nuova couldn't attack due to Closed Plant Gate, he set two cards face-down.

Akiza drew, and set two cards face-down. She then removed the Lord Poison in her Graveyard from play to have Black Rose Dragon use its 'Rose Restriction' ability and reduce the Attack of Nuova's Golden Shadow Token to 0. The Dragon then attacked with Black Rose Flare, but Nuova revealed Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward three times. This time, he got up to the maximum of five Flame Counters. Two of them disappeared, and Nuova's body turned molten. The Dragon immediately caught fire, and Akiza's Life Points decreased from 2500 to 1300. "What happened?" she demanded.

"When an opponent's monster battles my Shadow Token, "Nuova began, "…I can sacrifice two Flame Counters to activate my Heat Armor, negating the attack and dealing damage equal to half the attacking monster's Attack points to the controller. The only exception is if the attacking monster is a Pyro-type, in which case, neither effect applies."

Unable to do anything else for now, Akiza let Leo take over. He drew, but due to Nuova's Non Aggression Area, he couldn't summon the monster he drew, Morphtronic Datatron. The only thing he could do was play the Spell card Morphtronic Accelerator, returning a Morphtronic monster from his Hand to his Deck to destroy a card on the field and draw a card. He returned Morphtronic Scopen to his Deck and was about to target Non Aggression Area, but thought about it for a bit and instead chose Nuova's Backfire, destroying it. The card he drew happened to be another Morphtronic Accelerator, so he played that one as well, this time returning Morphtronic Magnen Bar to his Deck and destroying Non Aggression Area. He then played the Equip Spell Card Power Converter, equipping it to Morphtronic Boomboxen. The ability of the card activated, sacrificing itself to have Leo regain Life Points equal to the Attack of the equipped monster in exchange for lowering its Attack to 0 until the End Phase. Due to this, he gained 1200 Life Points to come to 1700.

Leo then used the ability of **Power Armor** to draw a random Equip Spell card from his Deck, drawing another Double Tool C&D. He equipped this to his Armor, bringing its Attack strength up to 3000. He attacked Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, but Nuova revealed Call of the Earthbound, allowing the Shadow Dragon to choose the new attack target. The target of the Armor's attack was now Black Rose Dragon, which was destroyed, bringing Akiza's Life Points to 700. Strangely, she was smiling, and it looked more like a smile of gratitude. Sighing in defeat, he placed one card face-down.

Goku Jr. took over, and summoned Black Hole Shield (0/0), which attached to his left arm. He then attacked Infernal Flame Emperor with Buster Pyle. Nuova's monster was immediately destroyed, but he revealed his final face-down, Flame Wall. This reduced all effect damage to 0, saving him from Buster Pyle's fatal 500 damage effect. He set two cards face-down to end his turn.

Nuova took his turn, returning to having five Flame Counters, and used Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards. He then played Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai to Tribute a FIRE monster that he controlled. He chose to Tribute Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. By doing this, he chose to inflict damage to Leo equal to the Tributed monster's original Attack, which totaled 2400. Akiza revealed Nature's Reflection at that point, redirecting the damage to Nuova. Unfortunately, Flame Wall was still active, and absorbed the damage. He then used Monster Reborn to revive Thestalos, and played Spell Reproduction to discard two Spells and get one back. Three Flame Counters disappeared, and Nuova held his hands only a small distance apart from each other. Fire started gathering, and soon, he held a fireball in his hands. "Nova Star!" he shouted.

As Nuova shouted, the fireball was thrown towards Leo's field. Leo's two Morphtronic Magnen and the Morphtronic Celfon were destroyed. "What happened now?" Leo panicked.

"Well…" Nuova began, "…when I sacrifice three Flame Counters, I can choose one player and destroy all non Pyro-type monsters with Attack points of 1000 or under. This is different to when I sacrifice one Flame Counter to destroy every last monster with 500 or less Attack points, something I like to call my Sun Gun Attack."

Nuova's Battle Phase arrived, and he attacked **Power Armor** with his Golden Shadow Token. Upon doing this, he played the Turn Jump he retrieved, moving ahead three turns and refilling his Flame Counters. Four disappeared, and a lens formed in front of Nuova/the Shadow Token. "Nova Death Ray!" he shouted, whereupon a beam of light shot through the lens, got magnified into something small, and shot straight through Leo's Armor. It was immediately destroyed, and Leo was left clutching his chest and gasping for breath, although there was no actual wound.

"Why?" Leo burst out. "I could have sent an Equip Spell Card to prevent its destruction!"

"Nova Death Ray negates any destruction prevention effects and destroys the target on the spot, no matter how high an Attack point value it has. What's more is that you take damage equal to half of the Attack power of the destroyed monster" Nuova informed as Leo's Life Points decreased by 1500 to a mere 200.

"But another effect of **Power Armor** activates: since you destroyed it, the attacking monster is destroyed, and you take damage equal to100 times the amount of Equip Spell Cards equipped to Power Armor!"

"Shadow Tokens cannot be destroyed by card effects, and Flame Wall negates all effect damage."

"Drat! I activate the fourth and final ability: When **Power Armor** is destroyed, I can choose to summon either of its fusion material monsters, and I choose Power Tool Dragon, also allowing my Armor's destroyed equipment to be shuffled back into my Deck! What do you do, out of curiosity, when you give up all five Flame Counters?"

"That is my Nova Sphere attack, which can only be triggered when **Four-Star Support: Smoldering Desert** is in play. If you recall, last time I used five Flame Counters to retrieve the Spell, but with it in play, I can trigger my ultimate attack. My Shadow Token and a monster of my choice are engulfed in a fireball. If either one of them makes a move or is affected by a Spell or Trap Card, the monster that I chose to use this effect on is destroyed, and the controller takes damage equal to twice the amount of Attack points!"

"Surely, some monsters can avoid that!?"

"Yes, a Pyro-type monster is the only exception. But now, I come to an interesting decision. Nova Death Ray can only be triggered when my Shadow Token enters battle, and its activation counts as having attacked with this monster. However, I play Burning Spear on Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch to raise its Attack by 400 to 2800 and lower its Defense by 200 to 800. With this, I can take you or Akiza out this turn."

"What?!"

"Yes, her field is wide open, you have only 200 Life Points left, and I have got 2800 Attack points ready to charge. I think, however, that you have been through a lot this turn, Leo, and it would be dishonorable to kick you while you are down, so I will let you recover. I attack Akiza directly with Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch! Burning Spear Thrust!"

Akiza revealed Rose Blizzard, negating the attack and switching Thestalos to Defense mode. Nuova ended his turn with two face-down cards.

Akiza drew, summoned Witch of the Black Rose (1700/1200) and used its ability to draw a card on condition that the monster was destroyed if the card drawn wasn't a Monster card. She drew Rose Fairy (600/1200), which was Special Summoned to the field. She then activated the Spell Card Shining Rebirth, allowing her to send monsters to the Graveyard for tuning and resurrect a Synchro monster. She sent the Level 4 Witch of the Black Rose and the Level 3 Rose Fairy to the Graveyard to Synchro Summon the destroyed Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800). As an added bonus, the chosen Synchro monster couldn't be destroyed the turn it was re-summoned by the card. Knowing that Nuova only had one Flame Counter, not enough to trigger the Heat Armor, she removed the Rose Fairy in her Graveyard from the game to reduce the attack of Nuova's Golden Shadow Token to 0. She tearfully attacked, but Nuova revealed his third Turn Jump, refilling his Flame Counters, and sacrificing two to activate Heat Armor. However, Goku Jr. revealed his face-down DNA Surgery, deciding to treat all monsters as Pyro-type. Due to this, Heat Armor failed, yet Nuova wasn't out of tricks yet. He revealed Martyr Curse, targeting his Shadow Token and Akiza's Black Rose Dragon, and forced them to battle with her monster effects negated. With that, it was 2800 points against 2400 points, but then Leo activated his own Trap, Synchro Big Tornado, targeting his 2500 DEF Power Tool Dragon and reducing the Shadow Token's Attack points by the same amount. The Shadow Token was now at 300 ATK and Nuova got incinerated by Akiza's Dragon, losing his last 300 Life Points. There was an explosion, and Toby had reappeared. The Four-star Dragon ball melted through and slid out of his hand, hitting the ground afterwards. Toby's hand had repaired itself, and the ball turned orange, with its stars turning red.

"Toby, are you okay?" Akiza shouted, running towards him.

"I don't know," Toby responded, as she reached him while being followed by the two young Saiyans. "If what Nuova said is true, then I should be… oh wait, there it is," and with that, he collapsed, Akiza catching him before he hit the ground.

"Is there any way to stop this?" Goku Jr. asked worriedly.

"Maybe," was Toby's response, whereupon he tried going Super Saiyan and standing up. However, he immediately collapsed into Akiza's arms again. Misty, having been informed by the others as to what was happening, was also there.

"Toby, don't die. Please don't die!" Misty pleaded in panic.

"I'm trying, Misty, but nothing I'm doing is working. I try to raise my power level, I can still feel my life force seeping away. Even going Super Saiyan isn't working. I think Nuova was right, I don't know how much time I have left!" Toby sobbed, with tears now streaming down his cheeks. "I don't want to die; I have had too much fun in this lifetime and have made true friends for the first time in my life. There are so many people that I have grown to love, I don't want to lose everything again!"

"You don't have to," spoke the voice of Goku Sr. "That is why I asked young Goku Jr. to bring the rest of the Dragon Balls here. With the seventh ball purified, all seven balls are together, and we can use the wish to bring you back to life."

"Can't you use the wish to prevent my death?"

"I'm afraid not, I don't know how much longer you can hold on, but by the time we can summon Shenron, you will have most likely passed on."

"Can you all please do one last thing then?"

"Anything."

"Please don't leave my side. Just please, hold me as I leave, otherwise it feels like I'm dying alone."

In accordance with this, Akiza held on tighter to Toby, while Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr. and Misty placed their hands on him. Yusei, Leo, Luna and the orange-haired Duelist came up and did the same. Toby could feel the warmth coming from everyone, and it made him very happy. Amidst his life trickling away, he could feel that, this time, he wasn't alone, he had friends. He used the last of his energy to smile just as the darkness started to descend. Everyone held on tighter, and just as the blackness completely clouded his vision and the feeling of their grips faded, he felt what he thought was true happiness. He most certainly wasn't alone.


	19. Chapter 19: The Eternal Dragon

Chapter 19: The Eternal Dragon

Toby opened his eyes to find himself wearing white clothes and sporting a halo above his head. He also found that he was by the queue going to King Yemma again, and one of the people there told him to get in that queue, that nobody would come to bail him out again. Seeing no other alternative, Toby found an empty space in the line and took his place. Surprisingly, the wait wasn't very long, as he found himself in King Yemma's office after only a few minutes. He was at first intimidated by this King; he was a red giant!

Just then, Toby's halo disappeared, and a voice boomed that he was brought back to life and is due to return to the living world. Remembering Goku Sr.'s promise, Toby's eyes lit up in wonder.

"I am aware of the orders, Toby Tredwell. I will send you back now." King Yemma boomed, and blackness enveloped Toby's eyes directly afterwards. He found that he could open his eyes a second afterwards, and he saw that he was on the same island that he died on. The only change was that the sky was extremely dark, everyone was covered in tears, and there was a long green dragon sprouting from a light on the ground.

"Toby!" Akiza's voice boomed out. She had approached him and held out her hand. "Can you stand?"

Toby tried moving his limbs, and found that he had some strength. However, he took Akiza's hand and slowly stood up. Once he was upright, he was pulled straight into her arms. Soon, he felt other people embracing him, but due to the fact that his head was in her shoulder and his eyes closed, he couldn't see who exactly was there.

"I know it was a short time, but I missed you," Akiza continued.

"What is your second wish?" boomed the Dragon, whose voice Toby now recognized as the one ordering his return to the living world.

"I don't know. Leo, do you want to be a Signer?" Luna's voice could be heard.

"Thanks Luna, but on second thought, no," Leo's voice responded.

"Why not? I remember you wanting so badly to be a Signer."

"Yes, I did, but if I just wish for it and have it happen, I don't think I'll be a good one. I feel I have to prove myself worthy."

"Good call… my great-great grandson. A privilege like that is indeed _earned_," Vegeta Sr. spoke.

"What?!" everyone shouted.

"Bring Toby here, with Leo, Luna, Misty and Vegeta Jr."

Akiza let go of Toby at that point, and he made his way to Vegeta Sr., joined by the other four ordered to be there.

"My great grandchildren, Misty and Toby Tredwell…" Vegeta Sr. began. "… and my great-great grandchildren, Leo, Luna and Vegeta. All of you, due to your actions recently, have proven yourselves worthy of the name 'Saiyan'. As have you, Goku Jr. However, there will be more troubles on the horizon, so you had better train yourselves to fight, and when you do, do it for the honor of your forefather, the great Prince Vegeta, or in your case, Goku Jr., for your forefather Kakarot!"

"Yeah, and just remember everything I've taught you and you should be fine." Goku Sr. told his great-great grandson.

"Grandpa?" a voice echoed.

"Hey Pan! How's it going?"

"I've been surviving," Pan said as she landed. "So you and Vegeta have returned?"

"Just mainly so we can meet up with our great-great… great, uh…"

"Just two 'greats', Grandpa."

"We were also here to finish Toby's job," Vegeta Sr. informed her.

"How so?"

"His Dragon ball also needed to be cleansed, but as you can see, we have used our first wish on the balls to revive him."

"Excuse me…" the green Dragon's voice boomed. "You have one more wish for me to grant. I'm waiting…"

"I have one wish," Yusei spoke up. "Goodwin worried about the cycle of the Crimson Dragon battling the Earthbound Immortals over and over again. Shenron, I wish to make it so that the cycle never has to repeat itself again!"

"That is not necessary; the Crimson Dragon has destroyed the King of the Netherworld!"

After a bit more discussion, the whole group couldn't find anything else to wish for, so they dismissed Shenron. He vanished, and seven objects rose up. Toby, recognizing these as the Dragon balls, took to the air. The balls shot off in seven different directions. Toby managed to grab two of them, and after seeing that he held the Four-star and Five-star balls, he threw the former to Goku Jr. in compliance with Goku Sr.'s request a year ago… and the latter to Leo.

"Well, it is time for us to go," Goku Sr. spoke. Vegeta Sr. held on to his arm, and he put his index and middle finger to his forehead. They vanished soon afterwards.

"Toby…" Leo began.

"Yes?" Toby responded.

"Where did they go?"

"I don't know. Somewhere."

"Why did you hand me the Dragon ball?"

"Well… I just thought that, considering Rage Shenron, you should have it."

"Will we be able to wish on them again?"

"Yes, we will, in a year's time. However, doing so is not a good idea unless it is urgent."

"Why?"

"If people continue to wish on the Dragon balls year after year, the same catastrophe as 100 years ago will happen again. It is only safe to wish on the Dragon balls once every century."

"Why, though?"

Toby then told Leo of what happened a century ago. People kept abusing the powers of the Dragon balls, and every wish created negative energy that was stored inside the balls. While the energy did dissipate over time, it took about one hundred years for that to happen. That was the reason that the Dragon balls were scattered after each wish, so that it would take centuries to find them again, therefore preventing the negative energy from accumulating. However, the Dragon balls were found and used much more frequently, and when they couldn't take any more, they cracked and released the negative energy in the form of the Shadow Dragons. After their defeat one hundred years ago, one last wish was made, and Shenron vanished. The Dragons that re-spawned as a result would have died from loss of their negative energy had Zero Reverse not occurred. That incident was the most likely reason why the Shadow Dragons now materialized their powers through Duel Monsters.

Toby then asked Akiza what had happened after his death. She recounted the story of his death bringing everyone around him to tears as he turned to a black smoke. Goku Sr. summoned the Dragon, and before anyone else could, Akiza made the wish to restore Toby to life. About a minute after Shenron declared that the wish will be granted and his eyes turned red, Toby's body reformed where it used to be, and he opened his eyes.

Pan and Misty had begun conversing, and the latter was surprised to hear that the former had been taking care of her little brother. She was even shocked to hear some of the things that Toby had told Pan.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" came one voice.

"Zarbon?!" Toby shouted, surprised.

"You will pay for ruining my body like that!"

"Like what? How did I ruin your body? Have you got a broken bone? Or a damaged internal organ?"

"What you did to my back in the tournament!"

"Please, you had that coming for at least three years!"

"What's more, how dare you humiliate me in front of so many people! Me! Zarbon the Beautiful!"

"What, humiliation in a sporting event is just wrong, but putting people smaller than you and weaker than you through utter misery and making their life a living hell through most of their school life is a-ok?"

"So what? You still had no right to defile my gorgeous body, and I am not leaving until I have my revenge!"

"Fine, I am going to say this as civilly as I can. I _hate_ you, Zarbon. I will fight you, considering this island as the ring, but the stakes are thus: If you win, you have one day to get out of my sight! If you lose, you have ten seconds to get out of my sight! Fail to do so and the consequences will be… severe!"

"Shall I join you?" Akiza asked.

"Don't worry, this guy is a pushover if I remember correctly. Besides, this is my fight!"

"Even so, I just realized: you will need a Duel Disk. Your other one disintegrated when we won."

"It's okay; I said 'fight', not 'Duel'. I'm going to do to him what he did to me during my school years!"

"Bring it!" Zarbon shouted, assuming a fighting stance. Toby also got into position, and soon, the fighters charged at each other.

* * *

><p><strong>End<strong>** note:** Okay, I'll be honest, the plot point about the ancestry of Vegeta isn't important for the most part. I just thought that maybe Luna and Leo could be descendants of Bulma's daughter. Anyway, the story is most likely going to be finished later this month, so see you next time for the final chapter.


	20. Chapter 20: The granted wishes

Chapter 20: The granted wishes

Zarbon charged, aiming a right hook directly at Toby's face. The fist closed in, edging closer every second… and hit nothing. Toby was in the air, his foot raised. He brought it down, but it contacted with Zarbon's arm instead of the head, his intended target.

"Heh, who would have thought you'd gotten faster," Toby spoke.

"It seems more like _you've_ gotten slower!" Zarbon shouted.

The fight continued for a couple more minutes. Toby was able to dodge or block every blow that Zarbon sent his way, but he found that although he was still stronger, his opponent was able to keep up with many of his attacks. The blocked leg drop at the beginning wasn't a fluke, and Zarbon's speed or instincts didn't seem to have changed, so maybe he was right, maybe Toby _had_ slowed up.

The fight continued to rage on, and the constant blocking of Toby's attacks made him recall his past. Such recollections included attempts to escape from Zarbon before he was found, some successful, some not. When Toby was found, he would always be powerless to fight back, and would emerge bruised and in a lot of pain. He would always suggest Dueling to resolve things, but Zarbon wouldn't listen, instead taking the more direct approach every time.

Then there was the World Martial Arts Tournament in Toby's second lifetime, where Zarbon didn't know who he was. All that the bully with the green hair in the ponytail knew was that he'd been beaten into the ground by someone in a blue hat and trenchcoat. Toby, now that he came to think about that, thought that wasn't proper revenge as Zarbon didn't know his true identity. What's more was that, arguably, he had been cheating as he had Nuova, therefore pitting two against one.

Now, Zarbon had arrived for one final showdown, knowing exactly who Toby was, and fighting him on equal ground. Although Toby was successfully blocking Zarbon, he was also successfully getting blocked by Zarbon, and it was infuriating him. As a warrior, this sudden lack of performance was unacceptable, it was as if Nuova's defeat had weakened Toby so much that he couldn't swat one fly without breaking a sweat. Toby, as a new-born warrior, couldn't stand the thought of having to hide behind someone else's abilities. Zarbon's defiance had to end.

That was when Toby remembered that he had an ability of his own, something that wasn't given to him, but which he created himself. His hair flared up and turned gold, after which he resumed attacking Zarbon. The green-haired boy was now unable to keep up, and the blows had gotten much harder. Deciding to end this, Toby kicked Zarbon towards the beach. Unable to do anything, Zarbon could only fly further along the island until coming to rest… inside the water on the beach.

"Well, it is official!" Toby shouted. "Zarbon has landed in the water and is now considered to be out of the ring! I win!"

"You just got lucky, brat!" Zarbon shouted back, although struggling to get up. "This proves nothing; you are still as pathetic as you once were!"

"Excuse me; I just beat you to a pulp for the second time in a row."

"You just got lucky. I'm still the stronger of the two of us."

"The rules were clear!" Akiza announced. "This island counted as the ring, and since you were knocked off the island, you were knocked out of the ring. You've lost the fight, so leave Toby alone!"

"Never! I demand a rematch!"

Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. suddenly appeared, both grabbing one of Zarbon's arms. "Just give up!" Goku Jr. spoke.

"Indeed," continued Vegeta Jr. "You beat Toby in one match, and then in a rematch he beat you. Now you cry and demand a rematch to that rematch, and Toby defeated you again! Now you demand a rematch to this rematch, all of a sudden crying foul now that you are on the receiving end of the beating instead of him! Give up. He's beaten you two out of three times."

"You two," Toby began. "Can you please throw him into a deep, dark hole somewhere?"

"That won't be necessary," Mina suddenly spoke. "I have just been e-mailed some very interesting information about this Zarbon boy. It looks like he is wanted for cheating in matches of World Martial Arts Tournaments."

"Interesting. What are the charges like?"

"Charges include hitting below the belt and poking in the opponent's eyes in 75% of his matches, and bribery by his father to, among other things, prevent disqualification and fix matches. Someone from the tournament forwarded this information to me now, requesting Sector Security to find and detain him. Can you kids keep him like that? Security will be here in about five minutes."

"At last, does that mean I'll be completely rid of him?"

"Yes."

"Thank you so much, I was running out of ideas to get him out of my hair."

Soon, Sector Security had arrived, and Toby took great pleasure in watching Zarbon being carried away to what he truly deserved. At that point, he was joined by Misty, Akiza, the Saiyans, Yusei, Mina, Luna, Leo and Pan.

Some time later…

Toby, Goku Jr., Vegeta Jr. and Pan were at a café, sitting at a table next to Akiza, Leo, Luna and Mina. Since his reunion with Misty, things had improved for Toby. She promised to try and make more time for the two of them. For now, though, she had to return to work, but left a promise to visit Toby more frequently. She even took time out to send photos to him and Akiza.

"Is our food here yet?" Goku Jr. asked, interrupting Toby's thoughts.

"He's right. I am hungry! How long is it gonna be?" Vegeta Jr. barked.

"Will you two quiet down?" Toby barked back. "You're disturbing the other customers! Besides, it will be here soon."

Just then, an old man took off his clothes to reveal a woman in glasses, screaming that she was hoping for a scoop.

"Hey, if you're looking for some news, just watch this table!" Pan shouted to the woman.

"Why?" she questioned.

"You'll see. Food has just arrived."

By that point, two cakes, one for each Saiyan, had been set on the table, along with two bowls of ramen. In an instant, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. had taken slices of their cake and were wolfing it down. They then proceeded to eat another slice a few seconds afterwards, and another, followed by another, with another slice being devoured. The cake in front of each Saiyan was gone within the minute. They then proceeded to the bowls of ramen, draining them in another minute. They requested refills, and soon after, the dishes started piling up, creating two towers on the table. Toby, while also having his slice of cake, couldn't help but be amused.

"I don't… believe it…" the woman in glasses responded. Her glasses had actually fallen to the tip of her nose, revealing her eyes to be wide in disbelief."

"Toby, thanks again for giving me some of the prize money," Pan spoke. "Something tells me I'll need it."

"I don't blame you," Toby responded. "Looks like these two take after their great-great grandfathers."

Akiza, Leo, Luna and Mina were also looking at the tower of dishes, completely baffled. "So, Toby…" Akiza broke the silence, "…what's next for you?"

"I don't know, Akiza," Toby replied. "Destroying the Shadow Dragons was as far ahead as I planned, I didn't look past that. Have you got any ideas?"

"I'm thinking of re-enrolling at Duel Academy. Maybe you should join me."

"I haven't got anywhere to stay in New Domino City though,"

"We have space for one more where I live, so you can stay with me if you like."

"Really? Thanks so much."

"Unacceptable!" Vegeta Jr. shouted. "I will not allow this to happen. I'd rather you stay with us in West City!"

"What's wrong Vegeta? I'll still be able to visit you, so why are you against me staying with Akiza?"

"Isn't that obvious? I don't trust anyone whose name rhymes with 'Frieza!'"

"Oh please, will you let this Akiza/Frieza conspiracy you've created die already? Besides, West City is some distance away."

"Okay fine."

"But Toby, please promise to come visit us, okay?" Goku Jr. pleaded.

"Don't worry, Goku, I will. Just promise me one thing, okay?"

"What?"

"If you Duel people over there, please don't beat them _too_ badly. That Armor Deck of yours packs quite a punch."

"Yeah, I can't believe how much I've grown into it, but weren't you the one that said 'Choose the style that's right for you and you will do well'?"

"Yes, I do remember saying that. You've definitely come a long way since Mount Paozu one year ago."

"Really, thanks."

Soon, Vegeta Jr.'s mother came to pick him up, and he left with a promise to Duel Toby at some point in the future. Goku Jr. and Pan soon left as well, promising Toby that they'd keep in touch (and thanking him for providing enough to pay the huge bill incurred by Saiyan appetites). Soon Akiza took Toby back to her home and told her parents about him.

Toby, while waiting for the verdict, settled down in the extra room in the house. He shuffled through his Deck, and remembered all the good times with Nuova. He had spliced his original Duel Academy Deck with Nuova's Fire Deck, and they had gone far together. He kept the cards that they had used when Nuova vanished. He had always liked his old strategy, it got him many surprising victories, and always with as little monster involvement as possible, just maybe the occasional Plasma Eel to, say, weaken a monster enough for Loge's Flame to block it.

Akiza came into the room, followed by her parents. "You can stay here," the father announced.

"Yes, we would be more than happy to accommodate you," the mother chimed in. "Especially since you and my daughter are friends."

"Thank you," Toby responded. He was quite looking forward to more time with Akiza. He made sure to notify Misty about his new housing arrangements, and he procured a new Duel Disk. This one looked almost exactly like Akiza's one, except it was colored dark blue.

The first day in Akiza's home was a very happy one. Akiza's parents liked Toby, and he got more of a chance to speak with the woman he idolized. Later that night, though, he started thinking about Nuova Shenron. Doing so made Toby realize one more thing: a wish was made on the Dragon Balls, and that meant there was negative energy inside them, the very essence of a Shadow Dragon. He felt that although his mission was over, at the same time, it wasn't. He had destroyed the resurfaced Shadow Dragons this time, but he had to keep guard over the Dragon Balls to make sure the catastrophe a century ago never happened again.

For as long as there is negative energy inside the Dragon Balls, the Shadow Dragons live on.

* * *

><p><strong>End note:<strong> Well, the final chapter is up for this story. I hope you have enjoyed what you have read. I personally enjoyed writing this, with some of my favorite moments being the Syn/Omega Shenron Duel, the Goku/Akiza Duel and, just, generally all of the Shadow Dragon Duels. Part of the reason for that was that I enjoyed creating the right cards to match the abilities of all the Shadow Dragons, and although there were some instances where I would have really liked them to use their abilities (such as the Eis Shenron Duel and second Nuova Shenron Duel), I was still quite happy with how it turned out.

**End note #2:** For now, due to a lack of ideas, I'm not sure if I will be doing a sequel to this, but if you want to share any possible ideas for one, feel free to pm me. Also, although this story is now finished, I might come back to this later if I find anything in need of revision.


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